Doors Slamming in my Face...

No Room at the Inn

When doors keep slamming in your face, maybe God is just not a Marriott kind of God.

Personal Reflection

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I am working on a project and I feel like doors keep slamming in my face.

I need volunteers.

SLAM.

"Sorry, I am not available."

"Sorry, I can't do that."

"Sorry, I can no longer help that weekend."

It feels like doors slamming in my face, one after another. Then last night, after a particularly loud SLAM, I went to bed, and God totally provided me with a revelation.

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I wonder how Joseph felt when he arrived in Bethlehem and realized there was no place for them to stay.

If I had been Joseph, I think I would have been completely excited the entire walk from Galilee. I mean, Mary was going to give birth to the Son of God. Surely God was going to have something spectacular arranged. Something worthy of the occasion. Something five-star.

I am talking about a gorgeous hotel with an amazing breakfast buffet. Omelet station. Tomatoes, bacon, spinach, onions, lots of cheese. Maybe some feta if they have it. A waffle loaded with whipped cream and chocolate chips. It's free, right? I mean, He is God.

I think I would have been dreaming about that omelet the entire walk.

So if I were Joseph, and I showed up to the first place and they said "No room," I think I would have been slightly annoyed, but I would have told myself: it is probably just because God has something even better in mind.

But what God had planned was not better. It was way worse.

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I think if I were Joseph, when I finally got to the last place in Bethlehem and they told me again, sorry, no room here either, I would have absolutely lost it.

I mean seriously, God? I am doing all of this for You and You cannot even provide a decent place for us to sleep? I would have been doubting, whining, wondering why God was not paving a clear path for me to do His will.

I probably would have been doubting whether it really was God's Son at all.

And then the next thing I know I am making Mary as comfortable as possible while she gives birth next to animals. I would have felt completely confused and angry and embarrassed. Like I failed my pregnant wife. Like I looked like a disorganized husband who could not even book a room in advance.

Can anyone relate?

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Of course now we know the entire plan. We celebrate Christmas every year with tiny manger scenes on our mantels. No one questions the lack of an omelet station. Because we already know how the story ends.

Sometimes God's plan doesn't look so pretty.
Sometimes it is messy.
Sometimes it even involves manure.
But it is still His plan.

So as these doors keep slamming in my face, I have to take a minute to remember that. Maybe this project I am working on will not be five-star. Maybe it will be messy and challenging and completely different from what I imagined.

But just because it may not be glorious does not mean it was not His plan all along.

Joseph figured that out. Eventually. In a stable. With a feeding trough for a crib and the animals looking on.

I think I can manage without the omelet station.

Pray for me. I will pray for you. 🙏

A Personal Blog on Faith, Life & the Journey

New Realization... Parish Employees should all be Canonized

I took a part time contractual position with my local parish, because you know what mother of five children who has a full time job DOESN'T also want a part time job?  Right?

Actually this job was really an answer to prayer.  Let me start at the beginning, and then I will get to the part about the canonizations of all parish employees.

I LOVE retreats, something about escaping the realities of life for a period of time to just bask in the light of GOd's love, and grow intimately with our Lord in prayer really makes me glad.  Even more than attending retreats, I LOVE planning and helping coordinate retreats so that others can bask in the light of God's love and grow intimately with our Lord in prayer.  To me its a thrill, and a "high" and I want everyone to feel what I feel, and experience what I experience.  SO we can all be "high" together.  (Deep down inside I really am a hippie.)

So about a year ago, and opportunity for a new full time job was presented to me and it included planning and coordinating confirmation retreats.  Well you see I sort of had a full time job already that I have been working at a for a while and I don't feel God calling to me leave.  But I did feel God calling to me to make a suggestion to my Pastor who had offered the role to me.  The suggestion was to coordinate just the confirmation retreats, as a contract employee and keep my full time job.

Honestly, I wasn't sure what the response would be, but when I received the "yes" from my Pastor. I immediately took it as confirmation from God that HE is calling me to do this.  I was excited, and filled with confidence that God really does want to use me in this way.

Then, I thought, "Wait a minute? What in the heck am I thinking?  I can't do this!"   (Those thoughts were not from God by the way.)

SO here I am in the thick of it, and it is happening.  I have to be honest. I am calling on the spirit of Moses a lot lately.  He had a speech impediment and yet, God called him to be the Voice of the Israelites to Pharaoh.  I am have a TIME impediment, and yet God is calling me to plan and coordinate three parish retreats.  Well God,  you are the one who invented Time, so here we go.

Since taking on this tiny little contract position, I have had a glimpse into the life of a parish employee, and truthfully I am realizing THEY ARE ALL PROFESSIONAL BEGGARS.  Every. Single. One.

Each parish is only as good as it's volunteers.  And in all fairness they shouldn't really be called Volunteers at all.  We are ALL called to be Disciples of Christ and Christ is speaking to each of us, when he says, "Go Therefore and Make Disciples of All Nations."  When you serve a parish community you are MAKING DISCIPLES.

Now in addition to begging people to step up and serve without any financial compensation, we require that they turn in 18 pages of paperwork, background checks, finger printing, and a three hour on-line training program to serve the youth.  WOW.  Now try to recruit disciples.

Yet this is what our Religious Education Directors, Youth Ministers, and Core teams have been doing for years.  This is seriously Saintly.

So here is my proposal for immediate consideration.

The three miracles necessary to be canonized can all be considered done after they have successfully recruited their first three volunteers.   Canonization should take place as soon as they have breathed their final breath.  Because in all fairness every Parish Employee is a TRUE SAINT even before they have passed onto heaven.

Seriously people, love on your parish staff members.  Send them flowers, show them you care.  Step up to disciple their domain;  preferably before they get to the "begging" stage.  Pray for them!  Pray that their work doesn't become tedious, and that they don't experience burn out.  Pray that they remember the spark that initiated their acceptance of the call, and that they always remain close to Christ to guide them in their vocation!!!