Cell Phones and Celebrities

Ever hear the phrase, “You might be mad now, but you’ll laugh about this later”?

I’ve often talked about the time I spent at GameStop as a store manager before getting into ministry. I spent about 4 years there, and have since held an extremely part time position. When I left the New Castle store, I was transferred to the Circle Center Mall GameStop. 

It was only about a half an hour to the West, but brothers and sisters, please believe me when I tell you, it was a crazy culture shock. There was lots of traffic in that store, lots of local, downtown commuters, mall walkers, homeless folks who would come into the mall to keep warm, lots of convention business, especially during FFA week, or GenCon, but we also had quite a few celebrities come through the store.

Some of our local pro ball players were semi-regulars. Players such as Roy Hibbert and Danny Granger of the Indiana Pacers, or Dwight Freeney of the Indianapolis Colts, Tony Dungie once came in to buy batteries. And occasionally, musicians would come to do a concert at Lucas Oil or Banker’s Life Fieldhouse, and they’d come in while they were waiting for their concerts to start.

So, the first couple of times, I would get really excited, about the 5^th or 6^th time when an NBA star comes in, it’s pretty much business as usual. So I never really lost my cool, like the others around me might. I’ve seen Roy Hibbert sign an autograph or two, Tony Dungie pose with a fan for a picture. No big deal.

Until one day, it was a big deal. Some of you are going to think that I’m a total geek when I tell you this. One day, I’m in my office, I’m on a conference call, and my assistant manager comes in. He tells me that I’ll never believe this, but Miley Cyrus was in the store. He was right. I didn’t believe him. Local celebrity, sure. Even a player from a visiting team, probably. But an “A List” celebrity, I don’t think so. He said to me, “You know what, you can sit there and not believe me, or you can come see for yourself.”

So, I decided to investigate this. Sure enough, he was totally right! Hannah Montana was walking around my store, looking at our video games like a normal person! I got a little short of breath for this one. Jesci and I were Hannah fans. It seems a little silly to admit now, especially since Miley Cyrus has all but gone insane, but at the time, I was really excited.

I didn’t go out of my way to bother her, but I did snap a picture on the best flip phone that 2009 had to offer. Of all things, she bought Guitar Hero V, and then left the store. If you’re curious, yes, she happily signed some autographs for fans, but for the most part, it was pretty normal. She kept a low profile. But I didn’t want to out an out bother her, so a quick picture on my phone was enough for me.

Usually, when I’m not using it, I’ll keep my phone in my front shirt pocket so that I can listen to the music on it, or grab it quickly if I need to. At the end of the night, I had bent over to toss our daily deposit into the safe, as I did so, my phone slipped out of the pocket, just as I was slamming shut the cast iron door to the cast iron safe. I tried to grab the phone, which flipped open when I reached for it, and as it continued to fall, it fell into the path of the moving cast iron safe door.

When that cast iron door struck that plastic and metal phone, it severed it completely in half. Not only did my phone get destroyed, but with it went any proof of my meeting with Miley. From this point on, as my assistant manager says, folks can either choose to believe me, or choose not to.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is an example of something that was upsetting when it happened, but is something I can laugh about now. Some memories are certainly more pleasant the further I get from them.  In life, we all have our share of stories like this. Stories of bad things that turn out to be funny, or even good things later on. So it is with the church. 

Do you know people who were burned by the church? Has your church burned you? Sometimes, even church experiences are things that are upsetting when they happen, but they can turn out for good. What makes the difference? You!

Stay invested in your church. Keep with it. Don't allow yourself to be easily offended, easily put off, or even more interested in your own meal. What I mean by that is, I have heard many people leave churches because they say they "simply aren't being fed" the way they'd like to be. 

Church doesn't exist to feed you. In fact, it doesn't exist for YOU at all. Not entirely. Not in the way that, especially in the American church, we think it does. The church, as William Temple once said, is the only institution that exists for the benefit of non-members. We're not here to be fed, but to be nourished. Nourishment leads to activity. Simply being fed leads to obesity. 

Let's not allow our churches to easily offend us. Instead, let's be like Jesus. Let's approach the church with the same attitude he approached us with. Let's put aside our own desires and embrace the church with her faults, her flaws, and her need for Jesus to show her the way. Can we be Jesus even to the church? 

Jesus embraced the cross. I'm sure that was something that seemed unpleasant at the time, but when we, as Paul says, are absent from the body and therefore are at home with the Lord, and Jesus embraces us, I'll bet he thinks that experience at the cross, while unpleasant at the time, was worth it now. 

Let's be like Jesus, and let's stick with our churches.