Proud Mary - Rollin' with What You Got

It was August of 2002. Colleen and I took a long trek out to Alberta with our little family in the Green Windstar. I can't believe it's been eight years. The main event was my cousin Karen's wedding in Calgary, and it was two weeks of whistle stops all the way there and back to Wausau, Wisconsin. The Rockies were amazing. We spent several days with my parents at a time-share in Canmore, just 15 miles or so south of Banff. I can see the morning clouds on the mountain ranges as if I'm standing on the balcony at this very moment.

And the trip was special because little Jason and little cousin Jayce were just months from being born.

We stopped at each of my sister's homes, Regina, Moosejaw, Edmonton, as well as my parents' home in Rivers, Manitoba. But what I'm thinking of this morning is a passing moment at the West Edmonton Mall. The full size hockey rink was pretty neat, as were the dolphin exhibit and the waterpark. But it was on our walk down "Bourbon Street" (think New Orleans style cafe court) that I heard a simple sound drifting out of one of the restaurants...

Left a good job in the city,

Workin for the man evry night and day,

And I never lost one minute of sleepin,

Worryin bout the way things might have been.

I peeked my head in and paused for a moment. The man had a guitar, a mic, and a drum machine piped through a little sound system in a corner not much bigger than a table. He sounded good, not awesome. He was more into what he was singing than anyone else, but there he was.

Big wheel keep on turnin,

Proud mary keep on burnin,

Rollin, rollin, rollin on the river.

Rollin. He had his guitar and his song, and he was rollin. He'd never be Credence Clearwater Revival, but he was rollin. No movie cameras, no record deals, just a solid rhythm and a skinny middle age man totally in his element.

Paul from the New Testament said it like this: "The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you!" On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment." (1 Corinthians 12:21-24)

And I'm not always sure we have an accurate picture of how weak or honorable we really are. But we grab out guitars, set up on whatever stage we've been granted, and we keep rollin.

I'll be 42 this week and I think I'm stepping into Life Two. Life has been rich in accomplishments, failures, love, heartbreak, and the continuing goodness of God. And I step outside myself and look at Evan Nehring. I think, "Who are you? What will you be? If you're privileged to lie peacefully on your deathbed some day, on what will you reflect?"

I have plenty of plans and dreams, but part of the plan is to just keep rollin on the river. I am who I am. I'm whatever God made me and whatever I'm becoming. I have worked and prayed and practiced and performed, and here I am. And if I've thought of myself too highly, so be it. If my place is to sing my simple tune to half-interested revelers, so be it.

By the grace of God, we keep rollin.