I'm scheduled to speak at my friend Paul Q-Pek's church tonight. He moved back to Austin recently to take a job as a worship leader at Calvary Worship Center. He was reading the art column I wrote for the Sep/Oct issue to his family at the dinner table. He said his family uttered a lot of "amen's" and "it's about time someone said that" type of comments. First of all, that is totally cool that a husband and father would read a spiritual type column like that to his family at the dinner table. That's what I'm talking about! Second, it's so encouraging to hear something like that. Based on that article, which was just some condensed thoughts on the arts, he's asked me to speak at a new service he's started at his church that is fostering and promoting the arts (all kinds).
I remember a sermon from about 18 years ago delivered by Jason Knox. He brought up ducks flying in a "V" formation when they head south together, etc. The head duck, the guy in the front of the arrowhead formation, takes the brunt of the wind velocity. The others in the formation cruise along in the draft he makes (kinda like race cars, bicycle teams, etc). It's an aerodynamic lesson from nature. Well, the ducks in the back of the formation can be heard quacking every once in a while. Apparently some scientists have tried to explain why they quack. You see, at that height and speed, opening one's mouth causes "drag" and slows the flier down. To quack requires a tremendous amount of extra energy that could probably best be saved for the duration of the trip (sometimes these ducks go a long way in one trip). One of the theories is they honk or quack just as a note of encouragement to the lead duck to keep on flying. Isn't that cool?
Posted by Doug Van Pelt at November 1, 2004 08:50 AM