More Ramblings...

The Sleeper awoke today.  We decided we like her better when she is asleep.

Ramblings of an Office Minion

Do you find it fascinating that people who work in an office tend to be a little odd?  Like singing along with the "Elvis Three at Three," or "bowling" with rolling office chairs and "Wet Floor" signs?  Cult films and prime time programming aside, it is difficult to capture the magnitude of an office group's dysfunction.  For instance, office groups embrace all types:

     1)  The Intellect:  This erudite individual goes to the library simply to read the newspaper that arrives at his front door each morning.  He listens only to news radio and would never think of engaging in "water cooler" chit-chat.  He feels a calling to educate those around him despite their lifelong contentment with ignorance.

     2)  The Sleeper:  Not long ago in an office not so far away, an employee dropped dead at his desk and remained there, unnoticed, through the weekend.  Not so far fetched -- The Sleeper is often mistaken for a corpse by those new to the office.

     3)  The Cultured Pearl:  Clippings from the City Paper, mailers from Summer Stage and Fringe Festival...  The Cultured Pearl would like to organize a group trip to the opera, but can't bear the thought of spending an entire evening repeatedly telling the rest of the office mammals to use their indoor voices.  Instead, she carefully selects a handful of deserving individuals (read "victims") with which to establish dialogue regarding cultural events.  "The Pearl" is sometimes mistaken for The Intellect, as they are both boorish, but only The Pearl will titter when the museum docent tries to pronounce the names of French artists properly; The Intellect will throttle the docent with his newspaper and head for the nearest archives.

     4)  The Googler:  The office employee who cannot resist Googling the name of the storekeeper on Petticoat Junction, and makes obscure references to movies based on his latest Google > IMDB > YouTube voyage of discovery.

     5)  The Roz:  The Office Manager/ Admin without whom the management would be thrown into a complete tailspin.  She's gruff, she's crabby, she smells of cigarettes and coffee, but Man! does she know her stuff!  Chances are, she knows how to install that toner cartridge -- without wearing half of the powder.  She also knows your social security number, so easy on the "big hair" jokes.

     6)  The Party Boy/ Girl:  The one who still wears sports logos and fraternity brands on casual day.  He (or she) is loud, irreverent, and they love to mess with The Intellect and The Cultured Pearl.  Though everyone else is annoyed by this person as well, they give him/ her a pass just because they provide this service.  If you're not quite sure, turn around, this is the office employee that is sitting on the copier even as we speak.

     7)  The Multi-Tasker:  Shops, reads, blogs, eats, and balances her checkbook -- all the while at the employ of a paycheck issuing, benefit paying, real live job!  Hold all her calls, Overstock.com is having a sale!  If she doesn't finish this Tweet soon, she'll have to work overtime just to complete payroll for the week!

     8)  The Peddler:  He's got ten kids and three jobs.  If he's not selling cookies for his daughters' troop, he's soliciting side work for his carpet laying business.  He likes to pretend he's an entrepreneur, but the armpits of his dress shirt are stained, and he is one new set of orthodontia away from foreclosure.  He's the one who always has change for a five -- you'll just have to buy a candy bar to get it.

Well, better go -- it's almost 3, and I need four more Wet Floor sign to make this spare!

What Will You Allow God to Do?

Way back when, when dinosaurs roamed terra firma... or, as I prefer to say, "When I was a little girl...." I had a high school physiology teacher who, I believe, really enjoyed his job.  He inserted personal anecdotes and views into his teaching, not because we were mindless dupes blindly, thoughtlessly falling for the influence of a respected teacher, but because we were taught to reason and consider that there were other perspectives to any argument.  One of the things that stuck with me was the view he and his wife shared on family.  They believed it was the job of Christians even today to follow the command of Genesis 1:28: to be fruitful and multiply.  Coupled with Philippians 4:19 which tells us God will supply all our needs, to them that meant, when it comes to children -- "keep 'em comin'!"  These days, we have the Duggars.  They have been vaulted and vilified for their philosophies and their techniques.  They have placed their lives under the microscope, subjected themselves to cultural and individual interpretations of everything from their spending habits to the number of times each week they bathe.  I'm not launching into a call for peace, love and understanding here, but my point is this: we are all, each one of us, fatally flawed and finite.  When asked and truthfully answered, we can all recall a moment when "we really blew it."  Should we stop judging others?  Absolutely, but as I said, that's not what this is about.

On one episode of "? Kids and Counting," one of the Duggar children became lost in the airport.  Upon finding him, the father remarked (I'm paraphrasing) that even families with two children lose a child and we all have to expect to lose one now and again.  This wasn't, I believe, some calloused moment of self-justification, but a moment in which he came face to face with the failures of his own humanity, and challenged us all to keep in mind, we share the same condition.  Not to make light of losing a child, figuratively or literally, but we lose people, possessions, youth, health -- all kinds of things throughout our lives.  We mourn -- as I said, we are only human.  The question is, "What do we allow God to do with those things moments of loss?"

"He who dies with the most toys wins."  Hoarders -- now a hot topic on reality TV.  Aren't these all symptoms of a society bent on acquiring everything it possibly can?  Filling its emptinesses?  Substituting its grief of loss with things or addictions?  But what would happen if we allowed God to use our loss, our grief, our hurt, our betrayal for His good?

Put simply, bad things are part of an imperfect world.  You have to expect them.  Are we wrong for remembering the journey put upon us is our own to reckon?  Is it wrong to think that our losses may be used by God to set us right? to make us stronger? to bring us to surrender?  It's pretty obvious that the painful sickness of a loved one is not what God wills; but what if He uses that to change you?  I don't believe that God wants to see my son where he is, but I am wrong to think He can't use that to make anyone of us different.  As humans, we focus on the wordly, the tangible, the things we see as possible or impossible.  How much better off we would be if we come to realize that God does supply all our needs in His capacity!  God is not bound by our rules or the Laws of Nature.  Like a parent, keenly watching over children at a playground, God sees the whole picture -- the dangers, the pitfalls, and the redemption of His children.  Will you allow Him to take your failures and heartaches and use them today?

A Bit of Boasting

1 Corinthians 1:30, 31 -- "And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, 'Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.'"

A few weeks ago we celebrated Easter, the celebration of the resurrection of Christ from the grave -- a glorious celebration, no doubt.  However, the significance of such an event is something that God does not allow us to easily forget.  Personally, I find it easy to focus on the salvation that occurred when Christ suffered and hung on that bloody wood for me; I find it easy to say, "What a wretch am I, and what a gracious gift He gave me."  I am a self- absorbed person.  BUT, the gift that our Heavenly Father gave is the gift that keeps on giving, not just for those new to the Gospel, but for me.  True, I am saved and will stay saved, but what of the Resurrection?

The Resurrection of Jesus Christ is not simply about His victory over death and, therefore, ours as well; it is about Christ's role as "wisdom from God. righteousness, sanctification and redemption."  Christ became, and still is -- everyday -- wisdom, righteousness, redemption and sanctification for us.  When someone twists events and tries to damage the ones I love, and all I feel is pity for them; I am drawn to my knees to pray in earnest for the one who has assumed servitude to the Father of Lies.  That my friend, is Jesus.  When I am drowing in guilt for the things that I should have done (much worse than things I have done) and it consumes me to the point of darkest depression; I lift my eyes to Heaven and thank God for His peace and providence.  That my friend, is Jesus.

Christ lives within me day after day, becoming God's wisdom, being the righteousness that pens these words, redeeming me from my own vituperation, restoring my self-respect.  Christ is the center of anything truly good I can do.  And here am I, boasting ONLY in the Lord!