Big weekend. I played six hours of Battlefront II yesterday. I played Ultimate Frisbee with youth group kids and listened to their whining about running too much (what is wrong with the Youth of America that I am wanting to run more than them?) And I went hiking at Starved Rock (Did you know the Native Americans actually built wooden stairs and pathways to make it easier to hike?).
Two thoughts struck me this weekend (hey, it is the weekend. Two thoughts over three days ain't bad!). The first came at Starved Rock.
There was a family with a dog in one of the canyons. He was running around and playing in the water. Well, at one part of the canyon was as slick rock slope. And he kinda tentatively inched further and further on it to check it out. And of course, he went to far and slid down into the water at the bottom. This really struck me as a illustration of how we slide down slippery slopes in our sins and struggles.
But what really got me was what the dog did the bottom. He just kept trying to climb back up that slippery rock to no avial. He struggled and struggled and struggled. He couldn't figure out that if he just turned around, he could just walk up the gradual dirt slope. Instead, he stayed right at the spot where he fell and tried in vain to climb out the same way he slid in.
And this is the best part: His family began to call the dog's name and lead him out of the pit. The woman walked around to the other side and called him to show him the way out. Only when he stopped fussing, whining and clawing did he hear her voice and follow her along the easy way out. Isn't this always the way with our struggles and sins? Man, I've had a situation like this in the last year. I just kept sliding down that depressing slippery rockface into the same puddle. And I'd try to climb out. But the only real way out was by listening and following.
The second thought this weekend is just as thought-provoking. It's about urinals.
After seing X-Men 3 Friday night, I went into the theater bathroom to find a line of about 7 guys waiting for the urinals. Well, then I notice that despite the long line, two urinals are not being used. They are the kid urinals--set about 6 inches lower on the wall. But they are still fully operational. There's no greater exposure. In fact, there's no real difference to these urinals except that they are a tad lower. That's it. And, you know, gravity does it's job.
But there must be a lack of macho street cred with using a kid's urinal. But I am not afraid. I said to the line ahead of me, "So, none of you are going to use those?" No one said anything (probably because of the unwritten Guy Code that you don't speak in the bathroom.) And so I bucked the line and went to one of the smaller urinals. When I was finished, only one guy in the line had gotten to go yet. And still, no one else followed my lead. They just waited.
And you know that one of them is blogging somewhere about the girly man who used the kiddie urinal instead of being a man and waiting.
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