Look Before You Leap, It's The Friday Five!

Okay, so this Friday Five is certainly topical, and definitely a good one - but I had to have some fun with it, too. Enjoy.

Hello from your Fifth Friday Five team, will smama and Songbird~

It's Leap Day!! Whether you're one of the special few who have a birthday only once every four years, or simply confused by the extra day on the calendar, everyone is welcome to join in and play our Leap Year Friday Five.

Tell us about a time you:

1. Leapt before looked


In 1996 I took a position as re-developer of Beta Sigma Psi fraternity at the Lutheran Student Center, University of Nebraska. Beta Sig had basically partied themselves out of existence three years earlier, and the alumni board wanted to use the proceeds from the sale of their old house to build a new, service-oriented men's group from the ground up. Now, I have a lot of skills for ministry and evangelism, but cold-calling strangers is NOT ONE OF THEM. Needless to say, the group was a rather dismal success - there were five of us by the end of the first year, all friends from the Lutheran Center whom I'd recruited through our interactions at worship, etc. Never mind the fact that this is, I believe, a far more effective means of building small groups; what I was hired to do never happened, and it took several more years and far more qualified folks to get Beta Sigma Psi Delta Chapter up and running again.

2. Leapt to a conclusion


My home congregation had promised financial aid through seminary for me, but one year that aid check didn't arrive at the start of the semester as we'd expected. After a few phone calls went unanswered, I leapt to the conclusion that thanks to my involvement with a reform-oriented group within my denomination, I was getting blacklisted at home. So I sent off a blistering, accusation filled email to my church - that is, to the secretary of my church, which was the only email address I had at the time. Turns out they'd simply forgotten to send the check. Much face was lost, much crow eaten. And boy, do I wish that was the only time I'd done something like that.

3. Took a Leap of Faith


This is one I don't mind having made, though it certainly didn't end as I'd hoped. In May 2002, I moved from my internship in Titusville, FL to Monterey, CA, putting my seminary program on hold for one year to tend to my marriage (my wife and I had separated, then we were trying to rebuild our marriage while she studied at an Army language school in Monterey). It lasted about a month; things just fell apart once I got there, and by July we'd filed for divorce and I was back in Minnesota to finish my M.Div. program. Yeah, it wasn't fun, but at least we can say we'd done what we could to live out our marriage vows. I feel a lot better about it today than I would have done if we'd just called it quits the first moment things got rough.

4. Took a literal Leap


Seventh grade. Spring. Shoe company representative is in the gym selling track shoes. I buy a pair of running spikes, totally ignoring the look of surprise on the rep's face when I tell him the model and shoe size. By the first meet I'm firmly ensconced in the throwing events and my friend Anthony is wearing my spikes. The first of many "what-the-#%@$-were-you-thinking?" moments.

5. And finally, what might you be faced with leaping in the coming year?


Let's see: A: new call to campus ministry. B: purchased our first house. C: awaiting the birth of our second child. Is that enough for hurdles, or do I need to come up with something more?

You can find these posters at one of my favorite online stores, despair.com

Finally, one more to go on: