It's Not Where You Start It's Where You Finish?

​My last couple of blog posts have been ideas for possible juggling routines. Last month’s idea felt different from the previous ideas primarily because I think it might actually happen. The other ideas;  the unjust stewert show, the prayer show, or the boast in weakness act, all started with a biblical idea. Whereas, last month’s idea started with a juggling trick.  Starting with a juggling trick seems much easier. After watching our Prodigal Fun show, I don’t know which way one would assume we came up with the show. We could have decided to do the Prodigal Son, and then tried to think of routines to go with inheritance, leaving, losing money, garbage, a party and so on. However that is not what we did at all. We thought of  routines about gold, saying bye bye bye, gambling, and so on before we ever thought about doing the prodigal son. We just figured out how to make it all fit after the fact.  Maybe it is good to trust in God’s providence and hope that everything will work out for good. However when trying to think about whatever it is that will come next , it would be nice to have more of a plan.

The last new thing that we did come up with was about the importance of having God's word as our foundation. Maybe that means we should start with the bible and build from there or maybe it is fine to come up with a bunch of random stuff and then relate it to a biblical principle or story at the end. It seems fine for juggling, but if I extend the process to something else it would seem worrisome. I imagining someone designing a VBS or something like that and picking a theme and then designing games, crafts, stories, snacks, and morality lessons that all fit into a safari or space or whatever. Then a week before the actual event remembering, snap we need to find some bible verses to go with everything we planned. Maybe that seems worse because a VBS is suppose to teach where as our show is largely entertainment.
​
Maybe my real problem is that we can't seem to work the other way. We just did some shows for Easter, and were asked if we could have more of an Easter message to go with the show.  We didn't really come up with any juggling ideas to proclaim and rejoice in the resurrection of Christ.  Maybe if we had more time we could have come up with something, but it just seems hard to start with an idea and put juggling on it. However, not every idea for juggling routine we do starts with a juggling trick. Sometimes it starts with a song, Midas Touch in particular was all built off of the song. I am pretty sure that if I ever talk about Romans  7 in a juggling routine it probably won’t be because I have some sort of insight I want to share or even that I think it is an important passage for people to hear. It will probably be so I can have an excuse to play “Atomic Dog”

​Romans 7

 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.

​Atomic Dog

 Why must I feel like that? Why must I chase the cat? Nothin’ but the dog in me.

I don't think we'll actually do that, but in my defense, there really aren’t any Christian funk bands for us to play, and George Clinton confessing to be a dog down to the atomic level probably fits into a juggling show easier than Paul concluding that he is a wretched man. I may be taking things out of context, but I think it is more likely that I am misinterpreting Atomic Dog than Romans.