The God who loves bad ideas

About three years ago my beardly buddy William Parks gave me a book called "Dove" by Robin Lee Graham. He told me that it helped change his life. I put that book on my shelf and forgot about it. Occasionally, I would glance over toward it and think, "I should read that someday". But I didn't, till now. I just read the first chapter and I'm already excited enough to write a blog as I begin. I've also already called William to thank him for the book. It may be God's magic timing for me.

In the first chapter, after Lee, the main character, and his two buddies nearly get killed in a squall while attempting to sail from Hawaii to Lanai in a rigged up lifeboat - his Dad, instead of telling his son to never get in a boat again, decides to buy his son a better boat! Amazing. His Dad encourages his boy to sail again after he had just returned from a nearly fatal adventure.

I did not grow up this way. I was always told to do the safe, smart, secure thing.

Bob Goff twittered today: @bobgoff: I used to be afraid of failing at the things that matter to me; now I'm more afraid of succeeding at the things that don't matter.

When I called William to tell him I was reading "Dove". He said, "That book came to me at a time when I thought my life was worthless, so I had resigned myself to simply pursue things that didn't really matter. I thought that was all I could do, I thought that was all I was worth."

Imagine a Heavenly Father who looks at our crazy attempts to live, our failures, our ridiculous ideas and says, "That's exciting, hoist the sails! Onward into the imprudent!" Would that surprise you? It seems kind of unbelievable to me. So now Lee's dad has bought a better boat for his sixteen year old son and they are fixing it up together. Secretly, Lee is dreaming that he will use this boat to sail around the world by himself. He doesn't want to break the news to his Dad, because he's sure his Dad will think it's a terrible idea and try to stop him. Eventually, he spills the beans. Here are the few lines that slapped me in the face like a salty sea spray:

"Surprisingly, my father barely reacted when I put the idea to him. We were now working ten hours a day on preparing the Dove for the ocean. I did not realize at the time that secretly my father had been hoping I would come up with just such a scheme..."

Immediately, I thought, "God is always quietly hoping that we will come up with crazy schemes to light up the world with real life that only comes through ridiculous trust in him." We're always so afraid to admit that we want more life, or to do anything about it, God is just aching for us to give it a shot. And if we follow his example, we're bound to come up with terrible ideas. I'm learning those may be the best kind.

"For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom..." 1 Cor 1:25