Revved Rev

I have a confession to make, I bought a red convertible. I feel like I am supposed to be apologetic and explain myself.

It's a 2006 Toyota Solara with 40,000 miles.  I found a great enough deal that I do not have a car payment. It's a Toyota for God's sake!  I will drive it until it falls apart ... or I do ... whichever comes first.  It's practical. My guilt, likely, has something to do with a categorical image of what a minister is supposed to be.

The fact is that I have been making very practical choices my entire life.  But, what I have come to realize is that there is no time when our lives become fixed.  There are seasons, but the seasons are not identical, they are only familiar.

My discernment over the past 6 months has created some changes in my role at the church, my relationship with my spouse and our child, and now with my ride. I have officially stepped into what most Americans would stereotype as a mid-life crisis. I would prefer to call it developmentally appropriate behavior. To everything there is a season. There is a time for planning and a time for spontaneity.  A time for security and a time for risk. A time to plant and a time to reap.

There are myriads of ways for a life to unfold. Sometimes we are stuck in the place where we believe our past is the only predictor of our future. The fact is that we are able to invent and reinvent ourselves at any point in our lives. Often it takes being faced with our mortality to remember that we don't have to keep doing what we have always done.  

So now I realize why people in mid-life buy red convertibles. It doesn't have to be because we are trying to relive our childhood. It could be because we realize the finite period we have left  to experience joy, unbridled joy, like the wind in our hair on a warm spring day. And so now I will be the minister in a collar with the top down.

Judge that. :)