“I am the lizard king. I can do anything.” -Jim Morrison

Once when I was a freshman in high school, my best friend walked up to me before the morning bell and said "Mr. Wood's got that damn lizard on his shoulder." Now, the fact that Mr. Wood carried a lizard on his shoulder is not essential to the story. What is essential is my reaction. I looked at her with raised eyebrows, "What did you say?" "He has that lizard on his shoulder." That's what I thought. We don't curse. We're 14 and we have no business doing such. Furthermore, we carry bibles in our backpacks and listen to TobyMac.

I don't know where along the way we began cursing, or how that lead to other things that 15 or 17 or 21 year olds have no business doing, but it did. I don't know when our friendship transitioned from "don't curse" to "don't drive tonight." It must have been somewhere around the time that I realized that I actually hate TobyMac. We took the bibles out of our bags, and when they came over the intercom and called me to the office, we exchanged 'oh shit' looks, because I definitely knew why and you were my best friend so you definitely knew why too.

Later, we both picked our bibles back up. We went to small groups and retreats together, and we certainly never did anything that Christians have no business doing. It was never a question. But circumstances change and people change and friendships change. And tonight, all that I can hope for either of us is that we'll both pick our bibles back up again and that we'll find something that really works. Something that serves as more than just a solution in the middle of an 'oh shit' moment. As far as our friendship, you have my permission to raise your eyebrows at me anytime I'm acting like I have no business acting.

As for Mr. Wood's lizard, his name was Peeve. He liked to introduce it to people as his pet, Peeve. And he always used to walk around with that dang lizard on his shoulder.