Flashback

Last night I was helping around the house and was putting clean sheets on Dawson and Ethan's beds. Those who know me know that any household or other chore MUST be accompanied by sound...preferably music, but sometimes even preaching will do.

When I am working in the boys' room, I have a couple of musical-chore-time-passing traditions. Rather than actually putting in their CD of kids songs and grooving out, I chose the OTHER tradition. I slowly opened the dresser drawer and had a flash forward as I considered that one day my boys are going to talk about "Daddy's special video tapes he keeps stashed in the back of the drawer". Yes...I keep a couple of videos tucked away in their room. These particular two more or less by accident, but they are there for a reason. The reason is that the only video cassette player in the house is in the boys' room (for all those pre-DVD releases). As to what is on these videos... one is...(gulp, swallow hard...confession is good for the soul...) a Gaither Homecoming video. The other is another video from my past days. A video from the Christian comedian and preacher, Mike Warnke. Many may remember him as the man who was radically saved from his past as a satanist high priest back in the sixties, only to have that story debunked in 1991. Regardless of his story, the teaching in the video was straight-up, rich theology wrapped in great delivery and jab-at-religion humor - my kind of stuff!

It always takes me back a few years when I listen to and watch this video. I go back to my teenage years as a student believer. This time, though, I got carried back a lot further. While I listened, Dawson and Ethan came in from getting their shower and watched and listened with me while they got ready for bed. At one point, they were standing in front of the television, taking in every word that was said and every move that was made. As I watched my boys watching the screen, Ethan (my "mini-me") started mimicking every word and action on the screen. For me, it was a sudden flashback to what I used to do as a child...mimicking the things I enjoyed. It was how I processed so much of what sticks with me to this day.

The truly wonderful thing is that as my boys both watched, listened, and mimicked Mike Warnke, they both were anxious to hear what he was saying. While much of it was over their heads, so many seeds of truth were planted and I am looking forward to the conversations that are coming.