Mystic Cords of Nonsense

Being a youth pastor and a PhD student in Church History is often a peculiar combination.

This past week I've been reading Doris Kearns Goodwin's 700+ page book Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln. It's a good book. I recommend it.

The problem is, it has absolutely nothing to do with the activity night I had planned for my seventh through tenth graders last night.

Or so I thought.

One of the games we were playing last night involved each person writing a small paragraph about themselves in as vague a way possible. I then read each paragraph back to them and we tried to guess who was who. For a little added wackiness, I has us all make up a funny fact about Abraham Lincoln to add to our paragraphs.

Among other things, we learned:

1.) Abraham Lincoln was secretly a crazy ninja that starred in movies such as Kung Fu Hustle.

2.) Abraham Lincoln had a big bump on the top of his head. That's why he wore that hat.

3.) Abraham Lincoln was so cool he taught Superman how to fly.

and my personal favorite....

4.) Abraham Lincoln had a pet leprechaun.

Every now and then, being a youth pastor makes history fun...and makes me realize that my life isn't quite as divided as I sometimes think.

Which is good, because I hear that houses divided against themselves don't do a good job standing...