Archive | October 2010

Fact or Fiction? Coy: Out to Change the World

Oct27

This story is a work of fiction.  Any likeness to a real person is intended and only for fun.

Coy was not young anymore but she was thin and fit and her straight blonde hair shimmered with health. Her eyes sparkled as she logged into her laptop from her home office.  What seemed like a dreary thing, checking in on her students, today seemed to take on more significance.

She looked at her computer screen and felt herself sucked into Facebook.  Yes, it was a time waster and Farmville definitely was an addiction for her, but helped her pass the time when she couldn’t sleep at night. The shifting lights as she seemed to become absorbed into her laptop and travel the World Wide Web was a bit confusing and overwhelming all at the same time.

Maybe there was something strange in her coffee?  Or was she in some bizarre dream?  Coy seemed suddenly able to travel into the pages and enter the worlds of some of her students in class and found herself amazed at what she discovered.  First of all, it was no longer 2010 – but many years in the future if the profile pics and information on the pages were any indication.

For instance, there was Andy.  The paper he had just submitted showed a sharp mind.  Coy often pondered his insecurities when he talked in class.  She had been seeking to encourage him. She was surprised to he had graduated with honors and was now a father of two and held a good job at a promising company.  Had she possibly helped him toward that?  Something in her spirit said, Yes!  She smiled.

She was sucked into another page and saw Sharon. In class this woman was young and full of energy and ideas, but a bit scattered.  Coy wondered what this young woman would do with her passion if it were a bit more focused.  Looking at her information page, Coy discovered that since graduating, Sharon had started her own not-for-profit company and was having an impact on the poor in her community.  According to the comments posted on her page it looked like Sharon had managed to corral some of those ideas and was quite successful and even recently engaged to be married.  Did anything that Coy had taught or invested in this woman help her to get to where she was today?  Most likely.

Coy was sucked back to the present and shook her head, a little dizzy, and sighed as her puppy came to lick her hand, begging to be petted. Maybe she was making a difference in the lives of those she was teaching and through them impacting the world in a positive way.  Maybe, just maybe she was modeling and encouraging her students just enough to make that mild shift that took them on a course they might have otherwise missed if they had not walked into her classroom.

It was then that her dog spoke up to chide her in her feelings of insignificance: “Hey!”

Coy was startled, “Who is that?”

“It’s me, your dog.  You would make a difference in my life if you let me go out to use the yard to do my ‘job’.” 

Coy smiled and rose to let her dog out, and gazing into the sunshine felt encouraged that every little thing she did, as a mom, a wife, a friend and a teacher, (and a pet owner) really truly could be used for things far greater than what she could see right now. 

Time to get back to emailing those students who were late turning in their assignments last night.  Coy had a job to do and she wasn’t going to let them down.

Fact or Fiction? Beth: The Church Lady

Oct21

This story is a work of fiction.  Any likeness to a real person is intended and only for fun.

The lock turned and the door opened.  Beth entered the dark church building early in the morning and made her way to the office without turning on the lights.  Flipping the switch in the office area she sighed deeply. Another day in the life of “the church lady.” She turned the power on to her computer and then went to the closet to put on the Christian rock and roll music she enjoyed as a backdrop to her busy days.

Wandering out to the lobby she glanced down the hallway by the café and noticed that several posters had fallen off the wall.  Again.  It was a pity Pastor Ken wouldn’t allow firearms in the church. If the posters were so bent on suicide, wouldn’t it be more fun to take them out back and just help them “end it all?” Oh well, wonder if he’d be okay with a BB-gun and let her borrow his son’s?  She’d ask at the next staff meeting.  That would be a great stress relief!

She checked the decorations hanging in the women’s bathroom, noticing that the one hanging to the left on the wall had once again tilted.  She righted it and returned to her cubicle.

With a sigh, she sat down and glanced at the many email demands that were awaiting her attention and set to work on the most urgent of them. While many might classify her as mere secretary, she was anything but.  What most people didn’t know was that it was her, Maggie, and Jodie that kept things humming smoothly in the back office. “Support staff?”  HA! She was much more than that!  Setting aside her long list of emails, she started to work on the bulletin for Sunday.  Her frustration started to mount when Kaspersky decided to do an update slowing everything down and the software would not cooperate and do what she wanted in trying to place so many announcements into limited space and edit them as well (couldn’t people even write?) – oh, and make them readable. Not everyone could comfortably read a 6pt font. She would persevere.

A few hours later, Beth was distracted when Susan,  the Women’s Ministry Director came in to her cubicle. “Beth, would you be able to get my ministry brochure done today? I really need it!”

Beth turned and her eyes flashed.  Before anyone could realize the danger, fire erupted from Beth’s mouth singeing Susan’s curly dark hair.  Susan wouldn’t need to get those split ends cut off now.

Fearing that the heat and smoke would set off the fire alarm system, Beth rushed to throw her coat over her keyboard to protect it from the automated sprinkler. The fire alarm started to blare but the sprinklers did not kick in.

Susan was shocked by what had happened. After they had managed to call the fire department to tell them there was no emergency and reset the alarms, Beth looked again at Susan and inhaled the smell of burnt hair. Ewww!  Then Beth remembered that Susan had asked her the day before if she had been losing weight as she looked so much thinner when she had been on stage with the worship team a few days past. 

 “I’m sorry, Susan, that I breathed fire on you. You caught me at a bad time.  I will try to get to your brochure but I have so much to do right now I cannot guarantee how fast I can get it done.  Could I have a two week window instead?”

Susan was running her fingers through her hair and shaking out the burnt pieces but looked up at Beth and smiled. “Sure, Beth, I’m sorry I wasn’t very considerate of your time and the fact that you have so many demands. Will you forgive me?”

“Sure.” said Beth, as she returned to her cubicle.  Everyone left her alone for the rest of the day, which was just fine with her as she managed to get a lot of work done.  She even managed a few minutes on Susan’s brochure.

I’m a Wimp

Oct7

I finished reading Nancy Leigh DeMoss’s book on “Gratitude” and it has me thinking: I’m such a whiner.

I’ve asked people if I come across as a complainer and many will say “No.” But I do know that in my heart of hearts that I am.  Before God, I whine and whimper and buck against minor inconveniences of life.

My head aches. Oh, poor baby!  My neck is sore.  Let me play a little violin dirge for you! I could go on and on with complaints. I’m sooooo tired.  Really? Like you’re the only one to struggle with that?   Physical. Relational. Even spiritual.  When is God going to do a miracle for you? Ever?  Yeah, I’m pretty pathetic. I’m a wimp.

It’s hard to be cheerful about difficult circumstances that never change. A new friend today in Bible Study found out that we have mold in our home and that it makes me sick if I vacuum.  This is not a complaint. It’s simply a fact that I’ve lived with for 8 years. She said, “Why don’t you move?”  Well. . . husband ain’t willing and there are many obstacles! I’ve been waiting for a move for – oh, let’s say, since the day we moved in 8 years ago?!  Trust me – I want to move!   Will a new home correct the other problems in my family and life?  No. It will distract me for awhile – but in long run, the problems would just move with me (except for maybe the mold).

Paul says that he had learned the secret to being content in whatever circumstances he was in – whether rich or poor.  And it’s true, I have realized, that when I often get what I want, I’m not satisfied but looking for the next thing that I’m miserable without.  That’s a pretty serious flaw.

Here’s what Paul writes:

Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. Yet it was kind of you to share my trouble. (Php 4:11-14)

How do we endure? By finding our strength in Christ. Sometimes I think that without the pain and struggles in my life, I would have wandered far from God, and failed to grow in my relationship and dependence on Him. Whatever He asks me to endure today, He will give me the strength to face. I just need to trust in Him.  Sometimes that can be hard to do.  Just being honest here!

I love the last line of Paul’s here: “. . . it was kind of you to share in my trouble.”  I have to admit, without people to share the burdens of life – I don’t know if I could keep on, keeping on, as well as I have.

Again – we are back to gratitude. Gratitude to God for His strength and support through the minor and major challenges of life, and gratitude for the people He has brought in my life to walk through those darker times with me and rejoice in the blessings.  It’s okay to be a wimp when I turn to God in those times instead of staying there moaning and groaning. We are never meant to carry our troubles alone! In that essence, being a wimp is a really good thing.