this is going to hurt you more than it will me
(that's not altogether true)


any good serialized tv show (or blog) worth it's weight in your investment in it will, from time to time, present the viewer (or reader) game-changing events. and by game-changing, i mean they will present you with an image or idea that will turn your perception of the tv show you've been watching on it's proverbial head. if the game-changer is affecting enough, not only will it alter the way you view the show moving forward, but it will also transform the way you've processed your commitment moving backwards.

it's no secret that i am a massive fan of lost. one of the many reasons for this is that the producers constantly ask their audience to evolve with the show through game-changing events but haven't yet, once, compromised their vision or "jumped the shark" to do so. during the final moments of the season three finale, i cannot tell you how incredible it felt to scream to sarah and the screen "it's a future-back!". in non-retarded man language, what that meant was that a show that had built it's mythology and back-stories into character-defining flashbacks had just pulled a 180 and shown the audience a flashforward. it completely altered how one would watch season four and it still remains relevant to this point in the series. most, if not all, of you fans of the show know now that this past wednesday's game-changer just so happened to fall out of the "what lies in the shadow of the statue?" people's big box. as the camera panned onto a familiar character in a familiar (but not quite so) state, we viewers were offered a glimpse of something that could, in fact, take the next 7 months 'til lost returns to process it's ramifications.

life, of course, is no different. we are presented with victory and tragedy constantly, each huge event in our life asking us to evolve and approach our future and our past in different ways.

in my 32- plus years, i have found no more apt and accurate microcosm of life than my church community. but the shame of that experience is that we've had very few game-changers in the last few years. you could argue the reason for the lack of those (game-changers that is) and lack of investment (not coincidentally in my opinion) for days, but we won't start that debate here (today).

today, we will announce that in just a little over an hour, the disciples council at humc will be presented with it's first game-changer in a long time, and i cannot wait to observe and participate in the fallout (if there even is any.)

i'll be back tuesday to talk about the initial reaction and to see if this afternoon changed, at all, the way we'll view our future. at the very least, it will affect the way we see our past.

enjoy the show.