The Shepard and the Knucklehead

So, Mike Alpert and I made a crazy bonsai run to Seattle Sunday night for dinner and dialogue. Yes, we spent 7 hours in a car just to spend 3 hours talking to people we didn't know! And it was great. However, I think we both paid for it on Monday at work . Mike had to be in about 8:30am and I was in about 7am.

Anyway, we got to the Blue Star Pub about 6pm and were warmly greeting by "Parker" (a one name guy like Sting, Bono or Prince) the founder of The Shepard and the Knucklehead. Once we all arrived and the evening got rolling we were singers, artists, hairstylists and corporate strategists, to name a few.

The point of the evening was to create a space for people to talk, share and explore a somewhat spiritually loaded topic or question. Mind you, not everyone in the room was a Christ follower, but I think it was fair to say that everyone was hungry for something which Christ could certainly provide. This weeks question was, "what is hope?"

This topic provided hours of great conversation! At my table we mused about hope (obviously), despair, acceptance, guilt, the speed of light (?) and the future.

Some quotes from the evening:

• You can never feel bad enough to make someone else feel good enough.
• Despair is the regret of past decisions, where as hope is the future unrealized and now is a moment of acceptance.
• I would rather be hopeful, because it feels better.

What was cool about the evening was that no one judged anyone for what they said or thought. No one even batted an eye when one person mentioned how he was in a study group covering the Purpose Drive Life. This was simply a safe place to gather and be ourselves with others.

Yes, our ultimate goal for going (and I believe for Parker's hosting of the evening) was to see people moved further along in their journey toward Jesus, but our motivation was compassion and grace. Hopefully, Sunday night at the Blue Star Pub was a mile marker for a few people, a rest stop for others or maybe, just maybe, even the trail head for some.