Our parents thought they were anarchists and subversives sent across the pond to corrupt our morals—something of a payback for the Boston Tea Party. The Beatles had long hair. They were trend-setters. We teens began to follow suit.
The pictures look funny now.
I remember one night watching the news with our family. Anti-Vietnam protestors were storming some town. My dad sneered and said, “Look! They all have long hair!”
Though a clueless teenager, I knew hair follicles had little to do with anti-war feeling, but I had enough sense to keep my mouth shut.
And our parents recoiled at the rock and roll lyrics of the Beatles. Now their words seem so tame: “I wanna’ hold your hand” and “Please love me do.”
Those were the days of bell-bottomed jeans and tie-dyed shirts. And Volkswagen vans with flowers painted on them. And Peter, Paul and Mary.
I try to remember those days and practice patience when I see a new generation doing things I don’t understand, like nose piercings, lip rings and mohawks.
I heard a young and influential pastor tell about going with his entire staff one afternoon and getting tattooed. All I could think about was how in the world I’d explain this to the budget committee after turning in the credit card receipt!
We once had a denominational leader who popularized the phrase, “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.” I’ve often felt convicted by this since “the main thing” isn’t always what I’m bothered by.
I filled in at a church several years ago and the sanctuary had old paint cans stacked in the back. As an OCD person I stressed over this. But my job wasn’t to organize a clean-up day--though I might have if I’d been invited back--but to preach a message of hope.
And I remember the lady who chewed on me one Sunday for my audacity to remove “the church’s Bible.” My predecessor put a 50-pound King James Bible on the pulpit and always read his text from it. I much preferred to use my own Bible and sometimes used other translations.
The main thing to her was decorum, which isn’t the main thing.
Scripture exhorts us to do all things “decently and in order,” but we’re also challenged most of all to love one another and serve together in the body of Christ.
So, to my fellow kingdom workers in a new and different generation, please be patient with me.
I’m trying to live the words Russ Taft used to sing: “You're my brother, you're my sister / so take me by the hand / together we will work until He comes.”
