Silly Dilemmas

We have three services each and every Sunday morning. I preach at each of them and enjoy doing so, but it has presented me with some situations that remind me how silly I am.

Take the Lord's Supper. No, I mean take it. How many times are you going to take it? I take it all three, but twenty years ago I would have taken it once and considered multiple takings a sign of liberalism run amok... or at least, liberalism walking briskly.

I considered taking the bread in the first and the wine in the second but that only confused everybody and gave the ushers hiccups as they tried to remember what to do.

So now I take it every service and am glad I do. However.... I don't give at every service. I only give once. One time, as a staff, we met and asked ourselves how to lead our congregation in giving (this is an incredible staff! They ALWAYS lead from the front, giving first, serving first, etc.). It was decided that it was a bad thing that two of our worship services never saw us give. We weren't modeling for them. So, let's split our giving into three checks and give some each service" Sounded good until volunteers who counted for one service but not another came across our checks and thought "those lousy hypocrites. This is all they're giving!" So, I'm back to giving one check.

Silly? Sure! Absurd? No question! But so are most things we puzzle and worry about. Will Jimmy do well in his clarinet lessons? May I speak for the universe and say, "Who cares?" There are only 18 jobs for clarinet players in the world and most of them require you to be an alcoholic so let's not fret over it shall we? And when was the last time you heard someone say, "Pete, you played the tuba in high school, didn't you? Drag that sucker out of the closet and play something for the party!"

I don't have a "the churches of Christ salute you" bumper sticker on my car and never have. Reason? Well, the small "c" always freaked me out for one, but the real reason is that I don't always drive in a holy and righteous manner. I would hate to bring shame on the church because I didn't come to a complete stop at a blinking red light (that is, a light that goes on and off, not to be confused with the euphemistic "That blinking red light!").

Silly? Yes, yes, yes.

Half of the elders' meetings I go to wind up discussing some issue or some complaint that is so, so silly -- at least to me. I think God has to shake his head and call Michael over to point it out sometimes. "Can you believe THAT'S what they're worried about?"

I pray daily for wisdom. I pray daily that I will only regard as important the things that God regards as important and that He waves off, I will, too. I think I'm getting better at it.

But maybe I'm just being silly.