WORKING ...

“...the night cometh, when no man can work.” (from John 9:4)

Sometimes I think I have A.D.D. or “Adult A.D.D.”!  My brain can and does go ALL OVER THE PLACE in a matter of just a few minutes, or even a few seconds.  This morning as I was getting ready for the day the thought occurred to me:  “Well, it’s Monday; you’ll start getting a lot more e-mails, and your blog will get a lot more ‘hits’!”  It’s true.  I don’t know about you, but in my case, the number of e-mails I receive goes WAY down between Fridays at 4 P.M. and Mondays at 8 A.M.  That’s also true about my blog.  I can post a brand new entry on Saturday morning and “nobody” reads it until sometime on Monday.  Over the weekend, I can usually predict who I get e-mails from.  Probably 85% of them are from three individuals.  The champion of the weekend e-mails has a screen name that begins with “e”.  In second place is someone who has a screen name that begins with “d” and in a distant third is someone who has a screen name that begins with “l”.  

What this tells me is that most people go on-line sending and receiving e-mails, surfing the net, etc. on Monday through Friday at their jobs.  I know, I know, I do it, too, and I DO, but somehow the fact that I’m on “24 hour call” and that ministry is not strictly confined to a few hours, makes me feel less guilty about it.  (Am I rationalizing?!)  I probably spend between 30 minutes and 45 minutes a day during “regular business hours” on-line.   I suspect people who work at those cubicles in big companies spend a lot more than that.  One time (about ten years ago) I visited a friend’s work station at a big company in Boston.  I was amazed at all the games and cool websites this person spent LOTS of time at during work, AND I was amazed that the person’s coworkers in some cases spent even MORE time at that stuff.  I wondered how they got any work done.  In fact, a few years later, there was a big layoff at that company and many people lost their jobs.  I was not surprised!  I wonder- does the time we spend on personal e-mails, surfing the net, buying stuff on E-Bay, etc. make us better workers?  It’s like that old line, “working hard or hardly working?”   I wonder. At those outsourced customer service locations in India, do you suppose those people are all surfing the net and playing games.  Somehow I don’t think so.

I guess the thing that bugs us more than people not working is electronic items not working.  Later this morning, I had a TERRIBLE time with an air conditioner in a key room in our church facility.  I could not get it to work at all.  This occupied a great deal of time and energy until I finally got it working, but I had to “play with it” AND I had to “pray over it” to get it running!  I pastor a tiny church but if I pastored a large church and had employees who were hardly working...I wonder which would bother me more:  the people not working or the A/C not working.  Honestly, I think it’s the A/C!

Speaking of working, some churches think they’re working hard but THEY’RE hardly working.  That could NOT be said of the Lutheran Church of Framingham.  The Lutheran Church of Framingham celebrated its 50th Anniversary on Sunday afternoon and my wife and I were in attendance.  The church’s congregation is not all that large...it’s larger than First Assembly of God of Framingham, yes, but it’s no more than 75, if that.  Still, that little church does SO much in the community and for the world.  A listing was given of all the ministries they have and the groups they “partner” with.  I happen to know the information was NOT an exaggeration.  Kudos to Rich Hurst the pastor.  He’s a guy who is about my age who is actually a very humble man but who has a heart like that of the CONVERTED Grinch....3 sizes TOO BIG!  I was talking to one guy who is a fundraiser for Lutheran Social Services who was in attendance.  He told me the church he attends in another Boston suburb has four times as many people as does the Lutheran Church of Framingham but does not do a fraction of the ministry that church does.  I learned a lot at the Lutheran service.  I honestly did NOT know that (like Roman Catholics) Lutherans use crucifixes (crosses with statues of Jesus on the cross as he was crucified).  For most Protestants, a crucifix is absolutely TABOO.   We tend to emphasize the fact that “Christ is Risen” and we don’t like to create a “graven image” of Jesus Christ.  Even so, the speaker at Sunday’s service explained that Martin Luther and his followers rejected THAT practice of Protestants, choosing rather to keep the crucifix to emphasize that Lutherans preach “Christ crucified”.  So I learned some theology, but (along with another small church pastor with whom I spoke at that service) I was challenged by how much the Lutheran Church is doing and that our church really needs to clarify our vision, our purpose, and our need for outreach.

I guess the bottom line is, God created us for work.  When an air conditioner is not working, it’s pretty aggravating.   When we’re supposed to be doing our jobs but we’re surfing the net....are we really doing the right thing?   [well, if you’re reading The Blog of Bob Baril, THAT’S OK!! :-)  ]

And, what is the real purpose of CHURCH?  We’d better get that one right!