West Cocoa Chat

On the way to Steven’s (sickness) guitar lessons last night we decided to eat at the new Vietnamese restaurant next to the Guitar Store. As we waited for the waitress we had one of those good, light-hearted family discussions. For some reason our 2 trips to Yosemite with Greg’s Family came up in the conversation. We laughed about our first trip when Steven was five and all the “men” slept out under the stars (actually blue tarps) in our “House-Keeping Unit.” It was very cold that night and for some reason Steven kept falling out of his cot. I was keeping and “eye” on him by crawling as far under my sleeping bag as my body could get to stay warm. At one point I had drifted off to sleep when I felt this little creature sitting on top of me saying, “Dad, Dad, are you in there?” When I poked my head out of my borough to answer him, I asked what was the matter? Steven shrugged and said, “I fell out of my bed (cot) again.” At that point we remembered how much Josh was laughing at Steven. Steven smiled and said, “Josh is always laughing at something I do.” He loves Joshua.

Talk about digressing, I digress – It was at this point our waitress came to take our orders. I was going to order based on the “sweet and sour pork” that I had at Mr. Trans, one of Greg’s favorite restaurants in Bixby Knolls. When I asked for the “sweet and sour pork” I received a “sweet and sour” look from our waitress. She informed me this wasn’t a Chinese restaurant. She said that Chinese food, Japanese food, and Vietnamese food were all different but if I trusted her, she would pick something for me that I would like. By the way, I can’t pronounce or even half describe what I had but it was good.

Now I was sure that I had ordered sweet and sour pork in Long Beach. I had assumed that all Vietnamese restaurants would have sweet and sour pork, and, I must admit for a moment I was disappointed. However, our waitress was so nice in her demeanor and when she asked me to trust her I couldn’t help myself and it all turned out for the good.

This incident reminded me of a conversation I had when I first started attending a Church of Christ back around 1983. I had asked a long time member about diversity (worship styles) among Churches of Christ throughout the U.S. This was his answer and it was given as a positive: No matter where you go in the U.S., every Church of Christ will have the same style and order of worship. In other words, you can expect “sweet and sour pork worship” at any U.S. CoC.

I don’t believe that was true in 1983 and I know it isn’t true now, and praise God that it isn’t. I believe the New Testament bares this out. I’m sure Paul enjoyed worshiping Greek Salad style in Athens as well as kosher style in Jerusalem. The same should hold true today. I had an inner-city minister in Cincinnati, Ohio tell me that if we came to his services, most of the young men would be wearing baggy pants with their underwear showing and most of their praise songs would have a “rap” background. Being an ex-collegiate basketball player, he actively plays and witnesses on the inner city playgrounds of his city.

Yes, it’s a good thing that we can’t find sweet and sour pork in all of our churches through out the country. Just trust the local “waiters and waitresses” as they live out their lives of faith in their individual communities. Mark 9: 38 - 40