PERSPECTIVE

I’m a planner.  I’m also a perfectionist.  Both of those traits have their good points, but boy do they ever have their bad points!  My late father was a perfectionist- much more even than I am.  It would take him “forever” to do a job around the house-because the job had to be done perfectly.  The projects he DID get done around the house were as perfect as one could get them, but he died leaving scores of unfinished projects.  And you know what they say about, “The best laid plans of mice and men...” or however that one goes.

I’m in a very philosophical mood this morning.  Along with being a planner, and a perfectionist, I have the need to PROCESS things.  Ultimately, that helps me to put things in PERSPECTIVE.  (Yeah, I know, all of this stuff starts with “P”.  Many times clergy like to have all their sermon points start with the same letter, maybe that’s why unconsciously I’m starting everything with the same letter today!)

Some people think pastors (there’s a “P” again!) are perfect.   Some people think they’re always positive.  Some think they SHOULD always be positive.  Years ago, my District Superintendent (like a bishop in other denominations) told me I’m “way too candid”.  Another minister has told me he couldn’t publicly share his faults, failures, and struggles- that such things are way too personal.  Well, as Frank Sinatra sang (or was it some other crooner?) “I Gotta Be Me!”  So, today, I’m pondering, and I’m processing, and I’m philosophical, and it’s all part of (for me) a PROCESS...yeah, the letter “p” is all over this piece!

Yes, yesterday was our 24th Anniversary.  We did go out to eat at a pretty good Chinese restaurant.  We did have ice cream cones at a very good ice cream stand.  It was “O.K.” but I don’t think it was the kind of day my wife really wanted.  Honestly, it wasn’t the kind of day I really wanted. To use a line my daughter Rachel often uses, “It was what it was”.  It’s kind of like my 49th birthday in 2003.  Usually, I love the weather on my birthdays (Sept. 19).  Usually, it’s around 68 degrees, sunny, low humidity, and the kind of day you’re just so thrilled to be alive. On my 49th, we were experiencing the remnants of a hurricane.  It was sickeningly humid- as humid and tropical as it possibly gets in New England.  It was raining hard off and on.  It was very windy.  Tree limbs and branches were down all over the place.  I also had a meeting in Marlboro I had to attend that morning; what a time I had dodging tree branches in the streets.  Yuck!  I was “wicked depressed” on that birthday!  Yet, one year later on my 50th there was perfect weather.  While we had a monsoon on Sept. 18 that year, Sept. 19, 2004 could not have been a more perfect day.  Next year is our 25th Anniversary.  I just trust it will be a much better day than Aug. 28, 2006 was.

Last night I watched NBC’s remembrance of Hurricane Katrina.  Now THAT will help you get things in perspective.  The pain and loss that the people of New Orleans’ Ninth Ward have gone through is unimaginable.  The neglect and treatment of those people was and is a disgrace.  One police officer was profiled.  Unlike so many of his peers, he didn’t desert his job or his city.  He didn’t dishonor his oath.  His house was devastated and he and his family had to live in a F.E.M.A. trailer for over half a year.   That man has been through severe suffering and loss.  Yet, he said if another hurricane strikes he will be right there on duty.  He will never abandon his post or his city.  That man’s a hero.  Yeah, I’m a planner and I’m a perfectionist.  But what do you do when Hurricane Katrina hits?  You can be the world’s best planner and perfectionist, and all that goes out the window!  The Hurricane Katrinas of life show us what we are really made of.  They aren’t things you can control.  You just have to “go” with them, step by step.  That’s real tough stuff for planners and perfectionists...involving a process that’s just all part of life.

Yeah, I’m in a philosophical mood today.  Part of me wants to go back to bed and pull the covers over my head, but I’m not going to do that!  I’m going out there today and just going to give it my best...for Jesus...and for me.

“Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended:  but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,  I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”  (Philippians 3:13-14)