The song "Tubthumping" came out when I was an undergraduate. The Sodexo cafeteria ENMU came with a free jukebox and my classmates and I consistently requested this so much that during lunch almost every day I heard it about five or six times. The Greyhounds did not win a lot of football games; we needed a pick-me-up and lived on a dry campus. We were required to live in the dormitories for at least the first year of our educational careers and thought that our fraternity brothers at San Angelo State were oppressed by having to live in them until they were seniors.
Looking back now, Hurray for San Angelo State! Now that I teach, I see my students who live in the dorms and have meal plans awake and working while the others are becoming vicious hungry zombies. I am happy that I experienced living in a dorm. It was a great experience. I also liked my on-campus apartment as I grew older. I am thankful that I have students living in dormitories.
"Tubthumping" while seemingly unimportant and focused on partying is really about living your life with haters. There are always going to be haters. I have published poetry since I was in high school. I was the English department senior award winner and worked two jobs during my last semester in high school. I was in the band, and people hated that I was as out and proud as we could be in '96. I wore a tie to school; it was metallic magenta and black checkered. It was gaudy, but it was 90s. I played chess and wore driving caps. We had just left neon which is back but never left as I still have some of my original neon.
When I went to the university, I continued writing poetry and focused on the trumpet for a long time. I was continuously teased by haters as my hair was every color, and I dyed it green to match things for Homecoming and purple to match fraternity robes. I did everything I could to make sure that my hair color told a story. That narrative was rainbow because the campus was dry! No alcohol allowed! It just made people creative. It was then that I knew that the point for most people was getting away with whatever they could instead of actually following what we had agreed to.
Anyone who majors in music, religion, philosophy, theater, or poetry is going to have haters who question their sanity. I knew that "Tubthumping" was going to be a theme song for me for my lifetime.
I have gotten knocked down several times since my undergraduate years. I thought leaving the ministry was the worst thing that I could have ever done just after graduation. Actually, I learned that ministry was everyone's life. Thank God! I quit! I can minister to others effectively now. Church planting was crazy, but getting the bishop to let me come home as a part of the laity was easy. We all fall short when we pastor out of the institution, apparently. Rogue pastoring is against the rules unless they join the church, then it's fine. I had only been part of the Episcopal Church for about four years anyway. You know --- new guy? It was the most stressful part of my life. I thought I was entering graduate school in shame at UTEP as I never wanted to go there, and it turned out that it was where God wanted me to be.
About five years ago, I lived through something that caused me to believe that I was going to live without reading and writing functionally ever again. Although it hasn't been accepted, yesterday I submitted a collection of poetry for publication. I was "Tubthumping" and remembered the song when I was sending the information off to Bright Hill Press.
"Tubthumping" is one of the hymns that no one recognizes as one. If the point of religion and a relationship with God is to persevere through ridiculous things, and from time to time it is, then "Tub Thumping" illustrates exactly what Acts 2:15 is about. The Spirit-filled people raised us up for finals as spirits brought some down. "Tubthumping" is about Pentecost.
Now, Pentecost is a completely different season from the one that most Christian churches are entering into. Advent is almost near. Advent is my favorite season. It is a season of preparation. We prepare and wait for the Messiah. It is about active waiting to be filled by the Spirit as well. Advent and Pentecost are related through the filling of the Spirit in different ways. I am already waiting in anticipation for Advent. In my life, it will lead to --- Chanukah for the first time!
This year, I am celebrating Chanukah and several other things for the first time. I am finding a path that is causing me to live and breathe God again. Why is that? I'm "Tubthumping." I am getting up again to live in God, with God, and in community with God's people --- humanity. Thank God for "Tubthumping."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2H5uWRjFsGc
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