Those who are aware of my particular brand of spirituality, like those scouts from so long ago, and some who've I've shared divine debate with, know that to call it eclectic would be an understatement. And I honestly can't believe in a Great Spirit, or Ultimate Creator who doesn't have a sense of humor when there is so much joy and pleasure in the world.
With that said, I found this guy all over the webs a few weeks back and was inspired. Although I don't share his enthusiasm for NASCAR, I do appreciate his style of worship. Pastor Joe Nelms it would seem is a constant giver of the Word with his particular brand of enthusiasm and I hope many other people can see that many believers, of many denominations, live and pray in the same world as they do, but also keep their faith within the same contexts. And with that, Bugedey Boogedy, Amen!
P.S. I might also track my fascination with unique prayer to one of the stories that influenced my childhood. Lee Marvin, in "Paint your wagon" performs a strange eulogy for a poor farmer wherein they discover gold at the river they are burying the deceased. I have actually used this piece as a monologue a couple times, it's always a hit.
Paint Your Wagon
Ben Rumson’s
“Oh God” monologue
After a wagon goes barreling, uncontrolled down a lethal slope, Mr. Rumson goes down to bury the farmers. Two brothers, one survives. It is up to Ben to give a eulogy to the recently deceased. During his conversation with the Lord, he and the other men present realize there is gold in these hills.
Ben: Bring Brother. (The men place the body over the hole.) Uh, more to the side. Oh god, we pass on to you the body and soul, of this nameless pecker head. Well, at least he went quick. An’ he aint gonna have to suffer through the scurvy. The dysentery, the spotted fever, the cholera or the ague. Not to mention them other maladies. Contracted in the consorts with low women. Haha. Or waste a couple years digin in the dirt and findin dirt, like I been doin.
And seein how I survived alla that. He coulda been hit by timber, fall down a shaft, starved, get murdered, or commited suicide on Christmas eve.What im tryin to say, God is, you dont seem to have no particular pity for your children when they livin’. So thats why were askin ya, to be a little kinder to em when they dead. So with all due reverence Lord, we pass on to you, this corn cracker’s body and soul.
(they see the gold and it registers)
To take him, and to keep him...
I stake this claim for me an’ my new partner over there or whatever the hell his name is! For ever and ever, Amen.
Pull ‘im up.
