Prom?...

"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take?" -Wayne Gretzky

"The Lord spoke to Moses: See, I have called by name Bezalel son of Uri son of Hur, of the the tribe of Judah: and I have filled him with divine spirit, with ability, intelligence, and knowledge in every kind of craft, to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver, and bronze, in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, in every kind of craft. Moreover, I have appointed with him Oholiab son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan; and I have given skill to all the skillful, so that they may make all that I have commanded you..." -Exodus 31:1-6

As many know, I love videos of marriage proposals. I love the creativity and the smiles and the joy and the neat, original ways that people have concocted to tell someone they want to spend the rest of their lives together.

I'm obviously not married, so I haven't had the opportunity to contribute to the joy. However, I was a high schooler once. And when you're in high school, you get to go to prom. And when you get to get to go to prom, you get to ask someone to go with you.

And junior year, I wanted to go with Laura Boone.

I was pretty in love. We'd been basically best friends since freshmen year (which really meant I wanted her to fall in love with me while she wanted to be friends, so while I was waiting for her to realize I was the man of her dreams, we became best friends.) But she was single and this was my chance!

In my quest for her love, every day at lunch I would buy a package of the tropical Starbursts from the candy machine. Then, between 7th and 8th periods when our paths crossed on our way to class, I would pass along the orange ones (her favorites!) It was kind of like my personal version of The Princess Bride, except instead of "As you wish," I had "Hear are your orange ones." Very romantic, I know!

Fast forward to the spring. I had a plan. I called her mom and said, "Hey, Mrs. Boone, I'd love to ask your daughter to prom. If I can get her out of the house, can I come by after school and set some stuff in her room?" She was thrilled.

So, with the assistance of some of her friends, I got her out of the house for about an hour after school. I had gone to Costco to grab one of those 52-pack, commercial-size boxes of tropical Starbursts, 2 roses, and I'd printed out a little poem. I got to her house and started unwrapping A LOT of Starburst packages.

In her upstairs room, I took the orange ones (her favorites, remember!) and spelled out P-R-O-M-? on her bed and underlined it with the two roses. I took a bunch of red Starbursts and outlined a heart around the question and then took the remaining hundreds of little sugar squares and made a path leading out her room, down the stairs, and to the front door. And the poem? It read "Roses are red. Violets are blue. Nothing is sweeter than prom with you (not even 512 Starbursts!)" It was pretty magical!

Needless to say, she said yes. And we had a blast! And then we dated for like 5 months. Mission accomplished.

What's the point of this story? Only that this kind of silly and over-the-top adventure is part of what makes me me. It's part of the way God made me. It's what makes me unique. If I'd simply asked, "Hey Laura, do you want to go prom?" I would've felt totally uncomfortable.

Part of who I am is this love language. I also have weak knees and a pretty active metabolism. I'm intelligent with a good grasp of common sense. I'm pretty passive in confrontation but feel very strongly about my convictions. I'd rather bring people together who disagree than have divisions tear people apart. I'm relatively athletic and quick and witty.

This is how God made me.

Nowadays, at many graduations, speakers tell recent graduates to follow their dreams and be whoever they want to be. "Don't let anyone tell you what to be," they say. "Don't let anyone trample your dreams. Be whatever you want to be."

While there's nothing inherently wrong with this message, it's incomplete, isn't it? It sounds a little selfish. Be whoever you want to be and do whatever you want to do. Yeah, but what about everybody else? In many ways, this message assumes too little of people.

My favorite story in scripture is that of Moses and Bezalel and Oholiab. Who? Yeah, it's not usually in a "Top-10 Favorite Stories of the Bible" list. But it's mine.

It's my favorite because Moses was given all of the instructions for how to build the tabernacle and he was a little overwhelmed. He wasn't a carpenter. He couldn't sew. He didn't know how to work with metals. Those weren't the gifts God gave Moses. Moses was a leader for the people. Those were his gifts. So God gave Moses Bezalel and Oholiab.

They were two men in the big camp of Israelites who had lots of skills that would help construct the tent. God gave them certain skills, and what did they do? They helped lead the whole tribe of Israel in building a tabernacle for God to dwell among them. They were made incredibly special so that they could bless God and so that they could bless the rest of their people. They became the best they could be and then found a way to put those skills to use serving others.

We are all given special, unique gifts. And we shouldn't try to be someone we're not. We should learn to embrace what makes us special. But that's only the beginning. We have to embrace what makes us us, the way that God made us, so that we can go take that and make the world a better place. We're not unique so that we can go do whatever we want. That's not a big enough dream. We were made for so much more than that!

So may we all find those things that make us who we are. May we find our prom invitations or our carpentry skills. May we find the gifts and quirks that God gave only to us. But may we also move beyond them to find the places in the world and in our communities where those gifts are most needed to shine a little bit of Heaven into places and lives feeling isolated and in need. And may we take what makes us us and help our neighbors see the God who made us that way.

forever unfinished...