The Drop Kick

One of my favorite expressions is "drop kick". It came on the heels of  the phrase "kicked to the curb" in our modern slanguage. I find both expressions appropriate to use in many life situations. Unlike "kicked to the curb", "drop kick" comes with some extra special properties:  first, that falling sensation from being "released". Then that excruciating pain upon the impact of the kick - while falling!!! Finally, the force of the kick propels the "object", sending it soaring a great distance away from the kicker! It's wonderful physics that conjure visuals I find very agreeable when I say, "I'm about to drop kick so and so..." (but I'm usually joking).

The subject today is "the drop kick"...and in the next few paragraphs I will try to explain how these words describe what has been happening to my "friend-base" over the last few months.

Today, I had to drop kick a former friend. It was inevitable. He is a devout agnostic, or maybe he's an atheist now, not sure - but it's become too difficult to have conversations with someone who can't relate to  my frequent references to the Lord. (i.e. "Praise God!"). I'm not altering or editing my way of speaking BECAUSE someone doesn't know how awesome God is!

What had happened was, (today) I received a group email, which he forwarded from someone else's email. I had already come to the point where I felt I should not open these types of emails from this friend. (that's already a red flag, right?) Being a very skilled writer himself, his command of the language is superb. If I weren't already rooted and grounded in my Faith - he might persuade me.... Today, however, I'd had enough. And I wrote and told him so. I told him to take me off his list - I can't abide the offensive nature of his rants against believers. To be fair, he wrote back and said he didn't realize I had been copied in - and had not sent it to me on purpose... I suppose he was also saying he would make sure it didn't happen again.  He did reiterate that, yes, he still does not believe in God, but no, my belief in God doesn't offend him. (I've long since stopped trying to proselytize) It's interesting, though, because there's some hypocrisy with this guy.  A few years ago, when he was very ill, and when his wife needed a very delicate surgery - he solicited my prayers! I thought that rather brazen! (I prayed for them anyway) But I had hoped that both of their positive outcomes would have had some kind of affect on increasing his faith. I had hoped that he would see that their lives were spared to see more years, and give them the opportunity to come to know Christ.  Alas, it seems that all he was trying to do was hedge his bets. Truly, he doesn't know God! I'm going to go ahead and say that his staunch denouncing of any faith or belief in God - is tantamount to the reprobate mind the Bible speaks of in Romans 1 (emphasis on v 28).  

The Bible also says that the carnal/human(istic) mind is enmity (hostile/hatred) against God, because it is not subject to the law of God, neither can it be....(Romans 8:6-7) I believe all of that. So, I get it. My former friend can't possibly deal with what I'm talking about because he has no desire to, so any discussion about religion is futile.(he doesn't understand that I have no love for "religion" myself - I love the LORD!) In this case, it's not difficult to see why he's been removed from my life.

A couple of days before today, I was the one who was drop kicked. A LOOOONG time friend, I've discovered, is angry with me. He believes that I did something underhanded, deceitful, and that I am childish, crazy, and so many other things, concerning a matter.... I thought about this. He could have a point, except for one thing - I've been forthcoming and have told him all things, upfront, and even BEFORE I shared pertinent information with others, on this same matter. He did not know that I dropped off of Facebook - so he may have thought it was only he that I dropped. I have no idea, just guessing now. But - when I heard from him via email....I was shocked by his anger. Now, we're both grown - I mean, senior citizens! He's a grandfather, for goodness sakes!!! We've got more years behind us than we have ahead of us! It's silly, really. -But again, it must be what the Lord would have. I have no malice. My mind and heart are clear.

The most unexpected drop kick of which I, again, was on the receiving end, was by a sister-friend. I have absolutely no idea why our communication ceased so abruptly. Clearly, there is a problem, but I'll not have a one-sided conversation. This occurred months ago, and I almost blogged about it before the end of the year, but I wanted to talk about more positive things at that time. And I didn't see this drop kick thing as a trend, until now. There is yet another woman friend I've known for a few years, who I must have offended because of my stance on a moral issue (apparently she doesn't view the Bible as a relevant book of moral standards, less known, as the Word of God ). I'm usually not very slow, but after three (or maybe four) unanswered emails to this sister - I got the message. She's through with me!! That's four people in a matter of a few months, the last three in a matter of days! WOW!

Bible says, "can two walk together except they be agreed?"(Amos 3:3) But let me say that I don't expect people to parrot my thoughts or agree with my opinions. This, however, is something happening on a very fundamental, spiritual level. I get it.

Back when I was involved in house to house Bible study ministry, we'd sometimes have a crowd of folks attend the meetings, sometimes we'd have just my family. We learned not to be discouraged by the way things looked; who came and who didn't come. We just knew that we had to be there because we were committed to the cause. We had to keep our door open. Our saying was,  "whoever comes, is supposed to be here; whoever isn't here, is not supposed to be here"....  I believe that saying applies to my experience right now.... The Lord is moving, and making room for new people in my circle; to join me in ministry...

And since I have this thing about "friends" anyway - I already know that those special individuals who currently grace my life, and whose lives I may bless - are exactly where they are supposed to be, as I am exactly where I am supposed to be.

God is showing me He's running this, and I'm open to whoever will come; and just as open to whoever has to go...