Out of the blue

When I was a freshman (1971) at Pepperdine University, our English class read a book that contained a chapter about the word "camp." The word in this chapter isn't talking about camping or a church camp or a summer camp of any kind. Instead the word "camp" at that time was used to indicate something that was over the top or exaggerated. Websters even has a separate definition for this usage - "something so outrageously artificial, affected, inappropriate, or out-of-date as to be considered amusing." Sort of like someone showing up at a prom in 2006 dressed in a "zoot suit" (a 30s/40s suit associated with the swing era - Google it). I had never heard the word "camp" used in this way and thought it rather silly that an English composition book would devote a whole chapter to this particular usage. I thought it was just an "LA" thing or a "Hollywood" thing. Lo and behold, I started seeing the word "camp" used this way all over the place. I even saw a billboard containing the word. Amazing.

When we bought our first minivan (1985 Toyota) it was painted a sandy sort of color (I think it was called Desert Rose). Wouldn't you know it, we had neighbors and half the community that owned that particular minivan (I'm exaggerating in case you don't know me). We did see it a lot even though we had never noticed it before.

One of the members here at Mt. Dora told me about a preacher (not in the Churches of Christ) that has a program called "servant evangelism." His name is Steve Sjogren. Guess what? You guessed it, his name popped up out of the blue. I was reading a blog (Michael Duduit - editor for Preaching Magazine) that mentioned a controversial speech by a popular preacher named Steve Sjogren. It turns out that Steve Sjogren claims that some of the pastors at big churches have admitted to him that they spend less than 15 hours on their sermons and that sometimes they preach someone else's sermon - word for word. Michael Duduit called it "stealing sermons" or plagiarism. Sjogren claims that we don't have to be completely original and that sometimes it's a good thing to use someone else's material. Apparently some preachers feel they have too much to do and can't spend time coming up with original sermons. Duduit claims that it's okay to borrow material (and sometimes you give credit depending on how you use the material) but to take a sermon word-for-word and not reveal that it isn't your sermon it the "preacher's unforgiveable sin" (that's my thought about Duduit's attitude). Duduit concluded by writing, "If you are too busy to prepare sermons, then you are too busy to preach."

I am amazed at how you can hear a word or see a car or be introduced to someone for the first time and then discover them all over the place. I bought a Ford Ranger last year and I am still noticing how popular the vehicle is. Maybe God uses these new situations for opportunities to serve him. Out of the blue we meet someone, then we start noticing them in all the places of our daily routine. Coincidence? Maybe not. Watch for out of the blue situations. Who knows what might happen.