Dear Inner Circle,
Last night we gathered in the hall for our Wayside’s Got Talent Evening, an amazing and raucous time where we celebrate all that’s beautiful and precious about who we are at our core. An evening where courageous contribution is met with love and applause.
The possibility of love is always born where no judgment is present. It’s judgment that blinds us to opportunity, surprise and even delight. It suspends others in the limitations within our hearts, and it prevents us from owning our own flaws and shortcomings. Where a group suspends its self-consciousness instead, a shared flow of joy and euphoria is birthed. That’s what we lived last night—pure joy and euphoria—by setting aside any judgement of ‘flaws’ and embracing the moment. We had songs, a semi-failed attempt at a modest striptease, poems, self-revelations and tears of laughter and sorrow. One of the highlights of the night was a friend of Wayside who came is full clown regalia. I’ve seen this person ride both highs and lows, but to see them light up the stage was something else entirely. You must come to the next one.
Yesterday I spent a quiet moment with a friend, who a few years ago, yelled out at me from the street, “I’m not racist Jon, but you’re a bl*k pri#k!” I know I am supposed to be mortified at this but how can you not chuckle. Five decades has taught me to be comfortable within my own skin, knowing that sometimes I can act in ways that resemble that remark. It’s kind of like when my kids break into laughter when they hear someone say, “Your dad is such a great listener!”
We all have our faults, and owning mine helps me to hold others higher than their current milieu. To see my friend now, gently buying me a coffee, asking after my family and sharing her heart for the future is a gentle reminder of a way of life that holds a commitment to vulnerable living. To accepting being a tower of weakness rather than the false pursuit of being a beacon of perfection. It gently makes all the difference.
Can you believe our Christmas planning is beginning? The only event on Wayside’s calendar that may top the chaotic joy and accepting love of a Wayside’s Got Talent night is our annual Christmas street party. Watch out, this is going to be a wild ride through to December, and once again, I am grateful that you are on it with us.
Thank you for being part of our Inner Circle,
Jon
Rev. Jon Owen
CEO & Pastor
Wayside Chapel
