Lauren Sparks

The Sparks Notes

A Monthly Muster for January

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The space around me feels different than it did when I started 2019.  Not where I want to be, but maybe my feet are at least facing the right general direction.  So all day long I have been replaying the events of this month and analyzing my head space and thought that maybe you, my online friends, might benefit from some of the things that are slowly starting to turn me around.

 

To some, and sometimes to me, it appears that all we have been doing in the Sparks household is volleyball.  That’s low-key true.  Practices and carpools and tournaments take up more time and money than I prefer this time of year.  But it is a joy to support my daughter and watch her team’s heart and hustle.  Let me tell you what I observed last weekend.  There is not a super-star on this team.  (I apologize now if you are a parent of one of these girls and thought your child was it.)  We play lots of teams that have a stand-out baller or two, and they are impressive.  And our girls definitely display different strengths and weaknesses – some better at certain skills than others. Above all, though, these teammates ENJOY each other.  This translates to some excellent teamwork that is sometimes able to best a more talented team.  Maybe there’s a life lesson hiding in there…

 

We traveled for a family funeral right after the new year.  The service was touching and even funny, as was Grannie.  And although some tears were shed, we celebrated a long and fruitful life.  I got to see family I don’t see often enough and was reminded how important they all are to me.  The time I get to spend with my family is life-giving.  I cherish them – from the newest baby to my 90 year old PawPaw.  And along family lines, Chuck and I celebrated 20 years of marriage.  We didn’t get to travel back to our Hawaiian honeymoon spot like we dreamed of as newlyweds, but we got to be together – and being with him is my greatest gift.

 

Our daughter Allie attended a youth retreat weekend at our church and invited 5 friends to join her!  Two of those precious friends make decisions to live their lives for Jesus.  The worship and preaching and serving is all my girl has been able to talk about!  I remember those mountaintop experiences and the uncomplicated faith of childhood.  My older, weathered heart knows that many challenges and difficulties lay ahead for Allie and her friends.  Yet, I praise Him for the belief and conviction and hope they have right now.  These are the roots that, with prayer and tending, will grow deep and keep them grounded in Christ during the storms that come.

 

During my personal study time with God I have been reading Is the Bible Good for Women?:  Seeking Clarity and Confidence Through a Jesus-Centered Understanding of Scripture by Wendy Alsup.  If you have studied the Bible more than a day, you know there are passages that are hard to understand – unless you think it’s totally normal that a woman be forced to marry her rapist.  Little things like that.  This book sheds some cultural light on issues surrounding women at that time by using the Bible as a commentary on itself.  I’m also reading The Louder Song:  Listening for Hope in the Midst of Lament by Aubrey Sampson.  I am learning so much about the almost lost art of lament and how it is as much a part of worship as praise.  Look for a review of this one soon.  And…I’m thinking a light-hearted novel may need to find it’s way to my nightstand next!

 

For visual entertainment, my sweetheart and I saw The Upside at the movie theater.  It was less sad and more funny than I expected.  At home, our daughter talked us into All Summer’s End.  I honestly couldn’t find much redeeming about it and even she didn’t like it.  We also stumbled across the series Sun Records, that you can stream on Amazon – a 9 episode scripted drama about the early days of the Memphis music scene featuring Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and others.  Don’t watch it unless you want Blue Moon of Kentucky as an ear worm.

 

2019 Planner

To finish, I’ll tell you about a gift from a sweet friend and a sweet snack.  A Christian planner similar to the one pictured here is really helping with my new goal of writing out a bible verse of God’s promises and reminders of all the ways He is sweet to me.  And this 2 ingredient snack (just bananas and cinnamon) satisfies my sweet tooth enough to help me clean up my eating habits. 

 

It’s the little things…On to February!

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What a Dead Dog, the Good Samaritan and Voicemail Have in Common

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Photo by Tyler Nix on Unsplash

At the tender driving age of 16, I ran over a dog.  The whole story embarrasses me, but we are friends.  So here goes.  I was driving a Ford Tempo that I shared with my twin sister on a very dark farm-to-market road…with two kids I babysat for in the backseat…when I practically went airborne.  This dog was massive.  If I had not seen him with my own eyes, I would have sworn he was a small horse.  It still flabbergasts me that the little car survived unscathed.

 

I was crestfallen to think I had hurt and probably killed him.  But it was not safe to stop the car there with no streetlights around and two children to take care of.  So I continued on to my destination with my heart pounding up near my esophagus.  I returned home a bit later on the same country road.  Remembering about where I had struck the poor animal, I pulled way over to the opposite side of the road and drove on the shoulder to make sure I missed him.  And then I plowed over a surprise bump.  It was so very dark, but I immediately knew that the dog had dragged himself to the other side of the road and laid down.  And I ran over him again.  I sought to show him mercy by keeping to the other side of the road and ended up hurting him worse.  As I retell it I still feel all of the disbelief and shame I did that night.

 

My pastor’s reading of the Good Samaritan story on Sunday sparked this memory.  From Luke 10 Jesus tells a parable of a man going down a road who was robbed and beaten and left half-dead.  A priest and a priest’s assistant both came by, saw him and moved over to the other side of the street to avoid him.  In so doing, just like I did all those years ago, they did him additional harm.  The Samaritan man came along next, and even though he had places he needed to be, he dressed the man’s wounds and took him to an inn.  Having other business to attend to, he paid someone else to nurse this stranger back to health.

 

It’s messy and inconvenient to be a friend, isn’t it?

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Hearing the familiar story this time made me think about how many different ways we have now to “walk on the other side of the road”.  When we don’t feel like getting involved, we can hide someone on social media.  We can avoid them at church or the office.  We can close our garage door when our neighbors are outside.  When we think we don’t have the time we can let the phone go to voicemail or choose not to respond to a text.

 

I listened to Bob Goff interviewed on a podcast recently, and he challenged me on this very issue.  (If you haven’t heard him tell a story or read one of his books, I would beg you to do so immediately.  Love Does and Everybody Always just might change the way you view how you should interact with the world.)  Bob’s message is always and forever to love people.  And in this interview he said, “The best way to show someone they have worth is to be available.”  For this to be true, the opposite is true as well.  If you want to send a message that someone is inconsequential (whether you intend to or not), ignore the text, decline the invitation, take days to return the voice mail, “walk on the other side of the street”.

 

“Beloved children, our love can’t be an abstract theory we only talk about but a way of life demonstrated through our loving deeds.”  1 John 3:18 The Passion Translation

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