TWO KINDS OF PEOPLE

“Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees;” (Hebrews 12:12)

In the hilarious film “What About Bob?” the lead character played by Bill Murray says (in answer to why he is divorced), “There are two kinds of people in the world:  those who love Neil Diamond and those who hate Neil Diamond.”  That may well be true.  I’ve also found that there are two types of people in this world:  those who live by schedules, watches, and high organization, and those who “fly by the seat of their pants”!

Anyone who knows me AT ALL knows I live by schedules, watches, and high organization.  For whatever reason (maybe because God has a sense of humor) I’m constantly thrown into situations with people who “fly by the seat of their pants”.  Without going into detail, that has happened to me in one way or another several times this week.  There’s sort of an unspoken rule (well, in some quarters, it’s a spoken rule) that ministers are supposed to be always smiling, always happy, always serene, always even tempered, and always full of faith.  Boy, has that been tested this week!

I’m not allowed to reveal the details of what we talk about in the pastors’ “small group” that I attend every other Wednesday morning.  But I will say that one highly experienced/seasoned pastor shared what we call a “devotional” this Wednesday morning about being “content in all circumstances”.  He mainly drew his thoughts from the Old Testament book of Habakkuk and from the New Testament book of Philippians.  It was one of those powerful devotionals where you KNOW God is speaking through it, but where you kind of say “uh OH”.  I just got that feeling:  God is telling me my CONTENTMENT is going to be really tested this week.

Again, in order to “protect the guilty” I am not naming any names, but my contentment has been SORELY tested since Wednesday morning.  I’ve managed quite a few fake smiles since then, and at times I couldn’t muster up any more than a disgusted look.  The tough part is, THEN I feel really guilty.  A man I have enormous respect for died of ALS last year.  I can’t even imagine what he and his family went through.  I’ve been to Haiti twice and seen poverty first-hand...REAL poverty.  I watched my mother die a very unpleasant death from cancer.  In comparison to any of those situations, I realize my life this week has been a big joke.  But there’s that struggle with discontent.

Why do we “hyper-orgainzed” people SO resent the “fly by the seat of their pants” types?  Is it because we secretly wish we were one of them?  Is it because we think they’re happier?  ARE they happier?  I don’t know.  Ironically, in the past I was asked to attend a series of special classes for pastors of small, struggling churches which just haven’t been successful.  The classes were held at our Assemblies of God District office.  At least half of the material was about time management and personal discipline.  I somewhat resented that because I have great time management and personal discipline...those aren’t the issue with me.  I have a pastor friend that I won’t name who pastors a church where things are so clean and organized that one could literally eat a meal off the floor, and where it’s SO professional you’d think you were at I.B.M.  My church facility tends to look like it’s maybe managed by The Waltons...very “lived in” and not perfect.  Yet, my friend with the “perfect” church facility is totally “flying by the seat of his pants”.  Sometimes I’ve been jealous of that and asked, “WHY, God?”  Well, the truth is that my friend has an outstanding church staff who are responsible for the church’s “perfection” at least in appearance.

I got up today in a bit of an “Is that what’s troubling you, Bunkie?!” mood, and that’s a big part of why I wrote this.  This piece has actually put a smile on my face, so I guess that’s good!