American Crazy: Prayer Vigils for Ice Cream

While walking the Camino de Santiago last month I had the opportunity to talk with many people from countries around the world particularly from Europe.  Contrary to the stereotype that Europeans don’t care much for Americans, I found the opposite to be true…but

…they are curious about us.

There is a question that they want to ask of us Yanks and that question may take different forms, but it can be essentially boiled down to;

“Why are Americans so crazy?”

Now as an American who has lived outside of the United States for a majority of my adult life I feel I am uniquely qualified to answer that.  See, an American can only begin to understand American Crazy once you have left those fruited plains for at least 5 to 10 years.  Otherwise American Crazy is “well, that’s just the way it it”.  I mean how do explain water to a fish?  (Note: Some Americans are able to see American Crazy while only having lived in America but as a white, male, middle-class, suburban, Republican, evangelical Christian, it was near impossible for me to understand American Crazy from inside the system 🙂 )

My answer to my International friends as to the craziness of “my people” was explaining that American culture has a larger than most mixture of nationalism, optimism, politics, and religion.  Throw that together with a history guided by Manifest Destiny, bake for 230 years, and you get Fox News, Ted Cruz, and all kinds of weird sh…er…um … stuff!

I mean stuff happens in America that is clearly crazy!  For example an American friend I met on the Camino de Santiago messaged me about the reverse culture shock she was having coming back to Texas from Spain.

Seems that the local Texans in her community have organized a yard sign campaign and prayer vigil to rally God and the people behind a noble cause.

And what cause could they be holding a prayer vigil for you may ask?

* Could it be for the people Nepal who have been devastated by recent earthquakes that have left their country shattered?   No… 

http://time.com/3882272/nepal-earthquake-death-toll-2/

* Could it be to stand for the young girls in South-East Asia whose virginity is sold for a price by their own families?  No…

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/04/03/world/cambodia-child-sex-trafficking/index.html

* Could it be for the people in Liberia or Sierra Leone whose populations are being ravaged still by the Ebola virus?   No…….

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/01/13/world/ebola-outbreak-what-you-need-to-know/index.html

The good people of Houston Texas are holding a prayer vigil and seeking the direct intervention of the Creator of the Universe for…

…ice cream!

Yep, you heard that right.  Ice cream…more specifically Blue Bell Ice Cream.

Apparently the local favorite had a bacteria which produced a massive recall of Blue Bell leaving empty supermarket shelves and disappointed ice cream aficionados.

Hey, don’t get me wrong.  I know what it’s like to pine for a favorite food and not be able to get it.  I live in Hong Kong and the nearest Chipotle is about 6,000 miles away.  And I remember back when I lived in Boulder Colorado and the local Chipotle restaurant swapped  out their tantalizing white rice for brown.

I nearly had a melt down!

But I never thought of organizing the community for a prayer vigil! 

Because that would be crazy!

American crazy!

I know God has more grace and understanding than I can even imagine but I gotta think even he has to be looking down at hands lifted up and voices crying out to him for their Blue Bell Ice Cream to be restored and saying, “You have GOT to be kidding me.”

Peace,

Steve