What ever happened to the way of the spontaneous gesture? The impromptu get up, leave whatever you’re doing, and just go kind of mentality? Is it a mere artifact that can only live through memoirs and/or recollections from Horatio’s (that old ex-greaser who always reads the newspaper and shares stories from the wonder years in the morning at your local coffee shop) ailing memory? Has the New Age surrendered all hope for spontaneity to exist? Who can make a case for the diminishing morale of the spontaneous?
A few months ago, I spoke with a guy that I genuinely think could.
I went home to Connecticut for about a week during the Thanksgiving holiday. My typical commuter route is as follows: Take Megabus from 30th Street Station in Philadelphia to 9th Avenue, New York; Then take the metro-north railroad from Grand Central Station in New York to Union Station in New Haven, CT. Wonderful itinerary. Upon passing through New York I received a text, “Mata, Mata. Coming through to your vicinity. Hit me up.” It was an unknown number. I immediately called the number and it so happened to be a good friend I hadn’t spoken to in some time. Delighted, we made arrangements to meet up while he (yes, it was a guy) spent his time in Connecticut.
On the day we planned on meeting up, we played phone tag. After an epic battle of button mashing and mildly frustrated facial expressions, we both gave up. My day went on, and oh boy, so did his.
A few days later, we crossed paths at our church service on Sunday. Following some good ol’ worship, we decided to grab lunch and make up for our extemporaneous meet-up fail. “Dude, what in the world did you end up doing that day?” I queried. And he proceeded to answer.
This dude spent 5 hours taking a joyride through the following route: East Hartford, CT - Springfield, MA - Hampton, MA - Burlington, VT, and back. Okay, I know these states are considerably small in comparison to the vast majority (New England might as well be a mega-state), but here is what struck me. “I had about 3/4 full in my tank, and I needed some spiritual revitalization. So, I decided just to drive.” He just needed to drive. To be spontaneous and just go.
Gas is expensive. He knew that. It’s a little strange driving aimlessly. He knew that. But if this is what he was willing and able to do in order to regenerate his spirituality, then whatever it takes, right?
Now, there’s this book known as the word of God taken directly from his very breath. One story made clear to me that the extempore must be taken seriously. The first five verses of Acts 16 cover the spur-of-the-moment story of Timothy. Shall we?
He [Paul] came to Derbe and then to Lystra, where a disciple named Timothy lived, whose mother was a Jewess and a believer, but whose father was a Greek. The brothers at Lystra and Iconium spoke well of him. Paul wanted to take him along on the journey, so he circumcised him because of the Jews who lived in that area, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. As they traveled from town to town, they delivered the decisions reached by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem for the people to obey. So the churches were strengthened in the faith and grew daily in numbers.
There’s a mountain of inspiration we could get out of this short excerpt. But here’s what I know my friend and Timothy have in common when evaluating both of their respective stories.
1) Spontaneity: (“I wasn’t prepared for this, per se. But I’m called to go, so I will go…”)
2) Doing whatever it takes:
- In order for my friend to have made the most with his time with God, he needed to drive to reconnect.
- In order for Timothy to be credible (and effective in evangelizing) to the old law-abiding Jews, he needed to be circumcised. (Trust Me, It’s a Big Decision).
Need to do something spontaneous today? I’m not enabling you to do something unwise, of course. Are you doing whatever it takes to be the best you that you can be for God? To be used by God?
Then do it. Stinkin’ do it. My friend did. Timothy did.
So can you.
