Archive Entry #3: November 1, 1990
Common to almost every inventory of my public persona characteristics will be at least two items: humor and hugs.
The humor made its debut when I was a twelve year old seventh grader who partnered with two friends to write and present to classmates a series of short stories starring characters from the Captain Kangaroo children’s television show that was a morning staple back in the sixties. In the 44 years since, the usually improvisational, sometimes caustic, often irreverent, and dependably sarcastic wit has never taken a break – in fact, it’s grown stronger and more creative.
The history of my passion for hugs is shorter but no less intense. I can’t identify the year when hugs became an important expression of affirmation for me, but certainly there hasn’t been a season in my 29 years at FCCEM when hugs weren’t a highly valued mode of communication.
Our modern culture widely embraces hugs (I know, the pun – couldn’t help myself; see second paragraph). Athletes, television talk show hosts and guests, business partners, everyday friends and family all hug far more freely today than they did in the 80's and 90's when my approach was atypical – perhaps especially for pastors – and for some, controversial.
I wrote today’s archive entry a little more than five years into my tenure here. I guess by then I had decided it was time I told people why they had witnessed my hugging so much and so many. May it be judged a good thing that nearly 24 years later – when the young girls showcased in the column have long since blossomed in wonderful adulthoods – I still believe everything you are about to read.
p.s. A brief aside: To give advance notice of this column’s approaching entry into the archive, I sent an email to a grandmother of the Sara Copeland (now Cutkomp) referenced in the column’s final paragraph. Ruth Copeland replied with her thanks and a reminder that Sara’s first name does not end with the “h” I had attached to it in my message. I have to call her response a reminder because I first learned Sara had no “h” when Ruth offered the same gentle correction 24 years ago, after she read the original column in which I attached an “h” to Sara’s name! Needless to say, I have corrected Sara’s name for her archive debut.
The next time someone asks “When will they ever learn?” you may confidently answer, not for at least a quarter century.
COMING NEXT: From June 2008, support for an FCCEM webpage – six years ahead of its time! – and anything else necessary to reach people for Jesus. Find it HERE.