almost famous

I was on the go-train last week, heading back to Toronto after returning the old family van. It’s blue. I needed it for the Donald Miller week. From the second floor of the train I started thinking that I probably won’t make the cut for Don’s next book unless for some reason he thinks of me as his son, which I’m not convinced that he does. After he left I realized a couple of things. I think that I wanted to meet Don and suddenly we’d become best friends and then I’d be known as Lewis-the beat poet president in his next book and we’d exchange witty, meaningful conversation about penguin sex or something like that. Here’s the thing: it didn’t happen. Don’t get me wrong, I think we had some good chats here and there. I suppose we thought each other was funny and shared some good stories, but in terms of life-changing conversations— it didn’t happen.

Over the course of Donald Miller week I realized that life changing, meaningful, conversations generally don’t happen with strangers very often, if ever. I imagine that’s the point of friendships. One night last week was one of those times I was thankful that I have some people to talk about life with and expect honest responses. It was just a couple of guys sitting around talking about feelings without thinking thatone of us must be gay. I guess it all comes down to this: being associated with someone famous doesn’t make anyone more valuable—being famous doesn’t make anyone more valuable. Yet we see someone who has been on CNN and say, “ah crap, where should I bow down?” when really, they’re as depraved as I am. Anyway, all of this to say that I think we need to value our friends, maybe even our enemies on the same level that we think of Miller, Mclaren, Lebron James or Brian Stiller. They’re all the same. Some are more popular than others but that has nothing to do with the intrinsic value of each individual. I should know this by now. I guess that’s all I wanted to say; that we shouldn’t expect to bond with famous people and have that meeting fill some void for popularity that is waiting to be filled in our lives. No, the desire to be valued is filled in Christ and is perpetuated in our communities- our friendships- anything else is a lie. However, if Don Miller was part of my community…