Once again, I find myself in over my head. This is an all-too-frequent state of being for me, I think. On second thought, perhaps because I am not often enough in over my head I actually need to be in over my head more often, perhaps even perpetually. Sounds like an Aflac commercial, I know. Read on if you have any desire or hope to understand what you just read.
This past Monday I began a loathsome task – loathsome because it required me to handle tools with which I am not particularly familiar nor even remotely adept. What tools? Does it matter? Tools are tools. Hammers, saws, drills, planes – the proper identification and implementation of building and maintenance tools are all Greek to me! Actually, that is not quite accurate. I can read Greek with a modicum of understanding and appreciation! Fix-it books, the projects they assure me are do-able, and tools they recommend for success – these are foreign languages to me!
You see, my sweet wife suffers with a problem. Her first husband – that would be me – has little or no handyman skills whatsoever. Moreover, she has misguidedly determined that my shortcomings can be easily overcome by experience. So, six days ago I set myself to pulling up the old vinyl floor in our kitchen with a mind to put in a new tile floor by week’s end. With all the tools I could imagine would aid me on my quest, then, I started pulling up floor around 10:30 Monday morning.
Two and a half hours later the old floor was gone. “Not bad for an amateur,” thought I, but by then we had discovered a new problem. Underneath the old floor lurked an older floor, an uglier floor, a more stubborn floor. Despite my druthers to the contrary, we knew this floor had to come up also to get us to the original sub-floor. At the time that I write this article we are now at least 20 hours into the removal of this second vile layer and have succeeded only in the deletion of perhaps two-thirds.
In addition to our primary objective – the eradication of all floors not essential to the laying of a fine tile floor – we have had to deal with the repair of a water leak triggered by the removal of the old dishwasher. This water leak led to some damage to the drywall downstairs. When in the course of our corrections to said leak a certain member of my construction team fell from the ladder nearly breaking their crown, we incurred further damage to the aforementioned drywall. Why were none of these interruptions even hinted at in my fix-it book? Not even in a footnote!
The troubling flipside of dreams and visions is the doing of them. I have discovered it is one thing to aspire to climb to the mountaintop, and it is an entirely other thing actually to set your feet on the incline and start to climb. My wife and I have dreamed of a particular design and upgrade in our kitchen. I was happy with the ideas and the development of the design up to a point. That point revealed itself recently at the painful crossroads of its impact on my pocketbook, my schedule, and my body.
Get ready for an abrupt change of direction. Follow on to the end and you may find a reward.
This week I have been looking at our Annual Church Profile (ACP). Suffice it to say here that this is a report designed to reflect our growth in key areas over the previous twelve months. The numbers trouble me. Indications are prevalent that we are like the majority of churches in our land plateaued – a polite way of saying we are declining.
This is not really news to me. I knew when you agreed with God to call me as your pastor that we are a church who needs to transition and to rediscover God’s purpose for us. I have reckoned with God and our leaders that in order for us to grow again we must undergo a period of adjustment and modification that could reasonably require at least three years and perhaps as many as seven before we begin to see momentum in our advance of the kingdom. I must confess, I was a little disappointed to find our first year together has not already begun to produce the results and impact I believe God intends for us.
Then I looked at my kitchen floor again. Dreams take time and energy … and often the pursuit of vision presents detours. These unexpected layers are opportunities in disguise by which God may mold our character, or make us more fit and ready for the ultimate end, or test our devotion to finish the task and finish well, or to remind us that when we are in over our heads we are more apt to ask for His help.
I must be yours for I am His!
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