Inspiration from skateboarding leads to questions about church

Its been a long time since I was on a skateboard... but skateboarding has left a lasting impression on me. This evening... as I was waiting for some software to load on my MBP... I took the opportunity to browse a wee bit of youtube and found the two videos that you may have already viewed.

I love both styles of skating. I so want to hang with Tony Alva (53) and skate bowls... and yet I am so inspired by Rodney Mullen (43) and his apparent defiance of laws of physics.

That's the thing I loved and still love about skating... it was a "both/and" scenario for me and never an "if/but". Neither style featured above was / is better than the other. I remember watching three styles - ramp, street & freestyle - before street & freestyle kind of mutated and evolved into the kind of *wow* that Mullen is capable of.

Skating was a broad church... where everyone who skated had their space to skate... in the manner they were most comfortable. I was most comfortable skating in the streets... because it was an expression of my reality... where I was at the time.

Maybe I'm being all rose-coloured-glasses about this but that's how I remember it.

I have to say... I don't ever remember the church being like that... and it isn't to this day. We are so divided about what's "right" that we've forgotten how to live right and... in some cases... what right even means. Its as if we've become so obsessed with "the word" that we've forgotten about "the word made flesh".

Do you think Tony Alva could argue that what Rodney Mullen is doing isn't true skateboarding? Similarly... do you think Mullen could put Alva in a box labeled "heretic"? Simply put... no.

As long as both are riding a board... how they do what they do is surely secondary?

In this vein... as long as we are loving Jesus & seeking His grace... does it matter how we are doing this?

Why are we so divided and so divisive? Where is our "both/and"? Where have we gone wrong? Why is church so "if/but"?

Think about it.

Tx