It is in Him that we live and move and keep on living. Acts 17:28 (new life)
I love this guy. He flew across the ocean last summer with my friend Tricia and joined a Red Page Ministries mission team I was leading in a remote area of western Romania. Children from the villages of Susani and Nevrincea were captivated by his strange Southern drawl and wild dance moves. They enthusiastically named him Johnny Coco (“rooster” in Romanian is cocoş, and they thought “Johnny” was a cool rockstar name).
Johnny sang songs, played games, and even helped take a few pictures. He thought every kid was beautiful – and he was especially kind to the ones with shaved heads and sweet smiles who felt like they were misfits among the discarded. That rooster was tireless, and he had a keen sense of knowing just what to do at just the right time. He was indeed a rockstar (such a rockstar, in fact, that he then journeyed to Guatemala with our team from Orphan Outreach to minister to kids there).
This weekend, Johnny flies back across the ocean to see those kids. I must admit, I’m sad I’m not joining him. There’s nothing like playing games in the delicate warmth of a summer day, eating the best honey in the world on fresh bread, delivering groceries to hungry families, drinking water from a community well, or getting a bear hug from a child. Johnny will once again dance and sing and know just what to do at just the right time. He’ll be a rockstar.
I know. Johnny is a puppet – a two-person puppet, in fact. One person moves his mouth and body while another moves his wings. Without help, he can’t do anything. He can’t move. He can’t speak. He can’t even fly across the ocean unless someone carries him. But that puppet has changed lives, and he’s getting ready to change more. When he’s brought to life, he shares that life with others.
Maybe that’s why I love him. Because Johnny reminds me that a life best lived is a life that allows God to do what He does best. It’s a life that impacts lives – not because it has any power to do so, but because it understands where true Power comes from. It’s a life that sees every life as beautiful and valuable and worthy of love.
And that is a rockstar life.