rainbow-rob

here is an ideas that I have been thinking about for a long time- I think I just got some words that express what I’m thinking. let’s see if it makes sense-

first of all, jane loves rainbows. she draws them often, and she always has the colors in the correct “roy g biv” order. she prefers that her clothes have rainbows on them. so I got the idea to pick her up a prism so that she can make her own rainbows at home. we both discovered that rainbows are kind of hard to make! they only work with sunlight; and the beam has to be very strong- like at sunrise or sunset. and the light has to hit the prism at just the right angle. we have spent a long time in front of windows with our prism, raising it, lowering it, twisting it, turning it, until that perfect position is found and colors shoot out on the wall or on the floor. jane thinks its super-cool, and to be honest, so do I.


I’ve been thinking about this with my speaking to middle schoolers. I watch a lot of speakers speak to middle schoolers; some speakers really connect with students, and some just don’t. sometimes I watch a speaker, and its like their words are shooting a beam directly at the prism of these young hearts and minds, and there are colors shooting off everywhere, and there is wonder in their eyes. other speakers preach their guts out, and have lots of insightful illustrations and speaking tricks, but for some reason, their words are just a little off. they maybe hitting the students every now and then, but the signal is weak, and the students are distracted. its like the light is hitting the prism at just a few degrees off; and some colors are coming out, but the rainbow isn’t quite there.


I would love to say that my messages fire off rainbows every time. there have definitely been times when I could just feel that my words were in the zone and I had the crowd in the palm of my hand and there were those moments when “you could have heard a pin drop.” there have been times when I have had so much joy and fun with my message, and I could tell that the students had just as much fun participating with me in that. and then there have been many more times when I ask myself, “should I really be doing this for a living? shouldn’t I be at least good at this to do this for a living?” there are some days that my passion for the topic isn’t quite right, or my energy level is low, or the room is distracting, I just thought an idea would work, when it really didn’t.

sometimes I watch some of my friends speak, and every time there are rainbows shooting off everywhere; and I get kind of jealous. and sometimes I just swipe their ideas and hope that they will work when I speak. either way, I have a new goal when I speak: I want to aim my words directly at a middle schooler’s heart and mind; I want to zero in on their world and bring the light of God’s word directly into the prism of their heart. I’m not aiming to impress the adults, I’m not aiming to impress my seminary professor, I’m not aiming to get something on tape that others will want to copy, I’m aiming for that rainbow. get your sunglasses out folks, its time for church.

God is love.
-rev-rob