Thursday, April 08, 2010

Almost Insanity

What a crazy week! This has to be the weirdest Spring Break I've ever had. I've already mentioned my two days with the dentist. That certainly foreshadowed the rest of the week. Wednesday I went to a family lunch with my mother and then to our church's District Assembly. This annual meeting brings delegates and pastors from our denomination in Western Washington together for the purpose of making administrative choices and setting goals and such. This year was a big one. The man who has directed the district for the past 25 years has retired. There has been a ton of speculation as to who would take this job. My husband was his assistant for three years and many thought he was brought in so he would be ready to assume this responsibility. Many thought that but my man and I were not among the many.

With the economic down-turn of the past couple years, it was necessary for my husband to leave his assistant job and find another, which he did. He stayed out of the district business completely. He didn't attend meetings, visit churches, or do anything that might give a whiff that he was still involved in any way. He plunged himself into his new responsibility as high school principal and has done a remarkable job. It is much different from his university work prior to this but it has been a good challenge among wonderful students, as well as a few crazies.

Last night was the farewell service for the former district leader, former boss, and we went. We saw a lot of old friends and visited with many. The meeting that would elect the new leader was held today. All day. We decided it was a good time to stay away and chose to spend the day with our grandchildren instead. We went to the park, out to eat, to a huge amusement hall, and finally back to our house for popcorn and a movie. Sometime during lunch the first phone call came in. Ballots were coming in; the pack was pretty tight but guess who was in the lead? Yeah, my man. We weren't worried. It was just a first ballot; things needed to sort out. About three ballots later we began to sweat. He still had a substantial, now-growing lead. After the next ballot, pastors began to call. Although happy about the way things were going, a few knew this was not necessarily something my man wanted to do. By the time movie and popcorn were happening, we were in trouble. It looked pretty obvious that if my man didn't do something to stop this forward momentum, he was going to have a new job. Could he do the job? Absolutely! In fact, there is no question that he is far better "trained" for that job than the one he is so focused on at this time. But no matter how we looked at it, discussed it, or prayed over it, there was no peace. None, zero, nada, rien! Finally we knew that he either had to make a phone call and stop this or he had to be prepared to take the job. We both agreed that it would not be fair to let it go to the end of the process and then say no. As it was, these people had been voting all day. We really felt horrible. What do we do? What does God want from us? We serve at His pleasure but was this what He wanted? Maybe... but I think there were a few, not many, certainly not most, who didn't want this. Do we force ourselves on the current organizational leadership of the church, even if we're pretty sure it isn't what they want? nah... There was no peace and we have always said, without peace we don't stop what we're doing to go somewhere else. The grass is never greener... So he made that call... and there were some pretty unhappy people. And we didn't go to church again tonight. And yes, they did elect someone, the next guy in the running, but we don't know if he's going to do it or not and I guess that doesn't matter. We've certainly sealed our fate with the church. And that's okay. We are not political animals like some. We don't like that stuff one bit, at least not in the church. And I don't know that there is a job that is more related to the politcal machinations of our church than this one.... except a few in KC.

We took our grandchildren back home then headed to the lake for a walk. Of course it started to rain! So we bopped into a favorite restaurant for an early dinner. As our salads arrived, a leader in our current assignment called and a bunch of dumb stuff was dropped on my man. I sat there, amazed at the timing of the ridiculous. Yet my guy chose to ignore the nonsense and rest in the fact that he had made the right decision. He spoke his mind forcefully but then shook it off. We enjoyed dinner, got in a short walk, and headed home.

And tomorrow's Friday! Nuts! Spring Break is almost over and it's been one crazy day after another. I had much higher expectations for this week than what I got! Such stress! Well, the countdown starts next week and I'm certainly hoping my summer is much calmer or a lot more fun than this Spring Break!

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