Years ago I met a man. He showed up on my doorstep. He was physically hunched over. His life changed by an accident. He said “I heard you would help me to get services”. I invited him in. A friend had told him about me and my wife. As I looked at this broken man I thought something is getting ready to happen. I asked if I could pray for him. As I did I could hear cracks and pops as bones and joints aligned. I was young in the Lord. Send me into a drug den to preach I was good with, but a man who was broken and hurt (One leg had shortened some 5 inches from the encounter of his vehicle and a ten wheeler.)I was not so good with. As I prayed for him he fell forward, across the coffee table (Aren’t people supposed to fall backwards?!?!?)and into my arms. He sounded like a breakfast cereal as snaps, crackles and pops kept coming from his body. I had a moment as his leg grew out. A while later I was looking at a new man. There was no trip to find him services that day or any other. He came to live with my wife and I. One of the many that would live with us over the years.

A few months ago I received an email from him. He was on a journey across the United States to share Jesus. (I had not seen him for many a year.)

I am not sure what I thought that day in Rutland Vermont. I am not sure what I thought even as time progressed. I saw a man accustomed to darkness come out into the light. To encounter Jesus.

This morning as I read a piece I had written in 2006, I heard snap, crackle, pop. I realized that there were things that were coming into rightful places. Other things were feeling the push, the pull. It was loud. It caught my attention. Things were changing. Even what I could not see.

I recently had a friend have hip surgery. They had to learn to walk differently, to carry their body differently. Years of walking hunched over had changed their bones, their connective tissue and their muscles. It affected their emotions and well being. Learning to stand up straight was a process. A good process but not without pain, tears and bewilderment some days.

The body of Christ is learning to stand up straight. To hold the head (Jesus) high. To recognize that when our “big toe” hurts we walk funny. We are crooked, off balance and often, just plain tired and ornery!

But that is about to change. Just as my friend had to learn to walk differently, so is the body of Christ. As the man who walked in the living room in 1993 and had his life changed, so must we. That alignment is coming.

Snap, what a happy sound
Snap is the happiest sound I’ve found
You may clap, rap, tap, slap but
Snap… makes the world go round.
Snap Crackle Pop Rice Krispies
I say it’s crackle the crispy sound
You gotta have crackle or the clock’s not wound.
Geese cackle, feathers tickle,
Belts buckle, beets pickle,
But crackle… makes the world go round.
Snap Crackle Pop Rice Krispies
I insist that pop’s the sound
The best is missed unless pop’s around.
You can’t stop hoppin’ when the cereal’s poppin’,
Pop… makes the world go round.
Snap Crackle Pop Rice Krispies

From the Rice Krispies song. Did you know they are called “rice bubbles” down under?

As the body of Christ begins to stand up, to change their walk and walk as intended the unbeliever is caught up as well. (In sales we often talk about how one product can have a ratio of a 1:10 drag, meaning if you sell that one product, it will drag $10 for every dollar spent. Some items can have larger “drag” than another.)Our “right standing” causes others to become involved even if they do not understand. (I could tell you stories of this week of lives being touched.)

So, even as my mind thinks about the old “snap, crackle, pop” commercials, I hear a happy sound in the air. Oh, if you read the news it looks bleak, but I am seeing men and women of character and soundness arising, coming over the horizon. Some young, some not.

That old friend who wrote me a few months. He breaks out the gospel wherever he goes.He got caught up in the draft. Pulled into the mix.

The life you have is not your own but the value of the influence you have and the influence you receive.

Who knows who you will touch. Who you will change.

Listen for the sound.