I Like Lance a Lot

I had a good long talk with Lance again on Saturday, and he may be one of the most refreshing people I have ever met. I want to know more people like him. He is open, honest, and genuine. He says what he thinks, but in a way that is unoffensive.

And wow, does he know his stuff! I’m not sure exactly how he would classify himself religiously, but he knows the Bible better than most of us at Seminary, myself included. He told me that he learned under Col. R.B. Thieme in Houston (for those of you who are “Thiemers”). As I talked with Lance, he was using Greek, talking about the Bema, and quoting Scripture, all while performing amazing tricks with his devil sticks.

At one point, Wendy invited him and his family over for dinner. He declined, and the reason was one I have never heard before in my entire life, and probably will never hear again. He thought we would be offended, but Wendy and I both laughed out loud when he explained why he didn’t want to come to dinner. I’m not going to repeat what he said here on a public blog, but let me just say that it was genuine, honest, kind, and authentic.

The bottom line is that I like Lance. He is someone I would love to hang out with, and someone we Christians could learn a lot from. However, most of the time, when we interact with people like Lance, we either get offensive or defensive, and simply try to win arguments. That wasn’t my goal. Though Lance and I disagree on many things right now, I didn’t want to argue, let alone win an argument. I simply wanted to win the opportunity for another conversation.