WHEN EVERYTHING BLOWS AWAY...

"...and having done all, to stand." (Ephesians 6:13)

Well, I've got a confession to make:  I was going to just "cut and paste" a copy of a complaint letter I wrote to the Letters to the Editor of the MetroWest Daily News in late January.  It was actually a very well written piece about the rudeness of an employee on a Framingham trash truck to a female resident.  I'd observed this whole thing on the way to work and decided to write a reflective piece about it.

Like the words of "Father MacKenzie" from the old Beatles song that no one would hear- no one would read my letter, either, because the paper never printed it.  I guess they thought it was too narrow an issue and should concern nobody.  They didn't get it.  A careful and thoughtful reading of it would have said the exact opposite!  I wanted you to be able to read it, and even send comments to the Editor at the paper, if you so desired.
Well, due to AOL's tendency to delete all sent letters when they are over a month old, I checked this morning, and it was gone!  Now it's extra true that no one will read it!  I guess that was not meant to be!

This has been a tough week.  It is now 6:40 on Saturday morning and I am exhausted.  Everything in me wants to just go back to bed- but I can't!  Tonight is our church's Annual Business Meeting.  There's a lot to do to get ready for it, AND snow has been forecast for this evening and tomorrow morning.  You know how I feel about that!  (Just check out the entry "DID PAT ROBERTSON REALLY MAKE THAT HURRICANE GO AWAY?"!)  My daughter has been in the hospital in Springfield, Missouri having a surgical procedure done.  She is only twenty.  My wife flew out there on Tuesday and will be back on Monday.  Yesterday it was SO windy in Boston's western suburbs it was almost like we were having a mini-hurricane.  Where IS Pat Robertson when you need him?  It was also trash pick-up day and my recyclables were blowing all over the street!  Over the lunch hour, I went out five times gathering them up and putting them back only to have them blow all over the street again.  At church, earlier this week a developer cleared the wooded lot next door.  (Yes, there  actually WAS a wooded lot in urban downtown Framingham!)  Well, the corner PVC drain pipes kept blowing down and rolling around the parking lot!  That has not happened before!  It has to be that the trees previously acted as a buffer to high winds.  Now the trees are gone, and for the poor drainpipes (and the poor pastor) it's a deal of "...good luck!..." when it comes to situations like that!

I have to go grocery shopping soon (after I shave and shower) then it's an all day "marathon".  OH, I didn't tell you the water pump is going on our Dodge Caravan did I?  My mechanic is coming to check that out today.

I listed my mood as "embarrassed".  Yesterday I was so frazzled and stressed that my brain went into overload.  I prepared a sermon, prepared a Bible Study, did "follow up" from this week's Board meeting, did some premiminary stuff for the Annual Business Meeting, AND I had to make a deposit of a lot of coins we'd collected for a Missions project.  On the deposit slip, I'd written that there were $3 worth of quarters instead of $60 worth.  The pleasant young Hispanic female teller at the bank kind of looked at me with an "Are you OK?" expression.  I really wasn't.  OH, I didn't tell you how I diffused a major conflict between two familes in the church (well technically it was three families) all over the sale of a car!

I'm a perfectionist, so I don't "do" well with this kind of stuff!  I just got an e-mail from my other daugther who is away in college in western MA reminding me to take good care of her hermit crab.  It kind of makes me feel like a crab.

Well, what's the bottom line?  I have to tell myself:  "When everything blows away ... having done all, you stand!"

(In the words of another pastor, A Blog can be a time hog.  I didn't have time to do this, but like the soft rock song says, "I do it all for you".  I'd love to hear from you!  Post a comment here, or e-mail me at RevRBaril@aol.com)