If we must!

I sat next to a guy, who happens to be the father of one of our basketball players here at Olivet. I never met him before, but have seen him at every game, so I proceeded to introduce myself. We moved from the name exchange to some casual conversation about what we both did, and I told him I was a prof, teaching in the School of Theology.  He said, "Great, at half time we can talk about Calvinism vs. Arminianism."  

I think he could tell by the look on my face that wasn't what I expected him to say.  Being a quick reader my response, which I tend to wear on my sleeve anyway he said, "You know, as iron sharpens iron.  It will be a great conversation."  My response was in the classical, jousting, early english mode; "if we must. . .!"

After again, wearing my feelings on my sleeve through my deep sigh, I proceeded to watch the first half of the game, not really able to concentrate on what was happening on the court, but more distracted by the conversation we were about to have.  When the buzzer sounded, I so wanted to get up and go to the bathroom, which the coffee I had been drinking through the first half had created a desire for me to do, but I decided to sit and see what was next, not wanting to be rude and obvious in my deflection of confrontation.  He opened the door with a "well", so I decided to jumped through.

I told him of a friend that I had in Ohio, a youth pastor at a southern Baptist church.  We both had a large number of students who attended the same high school, and were talking about doing some events together.  Our conversation began by talking about how our relationship could be defined by focusing on what we have in common, which is greater than the sum of our differences.  I didn't want to have the "once saved always saved" debate with him, for the sake of our kids and the students we were trying to reach.  We came to an agreement, that reformed and wesleyan men could have a relationship that was more about the Kingdom, than our own.

Well, it was a great thought that was not too long afterward headed off by the powers that be saying they thought it better that we keep things localized to our own churches.  We maintained our friendship, but never did any of those events together, choosing instead to keep things "localized".  Not sure what could have happened on the campus of Butler High School in Vandalia Ohio had we combined our resources, guess we'll never know.  

I wish some of our lines were a little softer, like the grassy line above.  It's apparent to me that there will always be some who are more concerned with our differences than what we have in common.  I guess that's the reason why on our 2-mile jaunt every Sunday, we drive by 7 churches on the way to ours.  And we do it because we "must"!?