Too much time on your hands?
My new job is quite interesting. I have gone from working at a church, to reading mail from inmates. More specifically, I have gone from listening to people get upset because there were no flowers in the Sanctuary on Sunday morning, to reading letters and cases from people who are sitting in jail and claiming they shouldn't be there. Semantics?
This is what I always wanted to tell the people who called the Church, upset about something silly like flowers - "look out your window. Did the sun come up this morning? I thought so." BUT I never did say anything like that, I just listened and assured them we would make sure it wouldn't happen again. Now, I have the desire to write some of these inmates who are trying to file lawsuits and say something just as smart. BUT, I am not.
You might think this is crazy, but these two very different groups of people have a lot in common. What is that? Well, these are all people with a lot of time on their hands. Obviously, we can all agree that inmates have a lot of time on their hands. Granted some of them use the resources available to get their GED, and some take classes offered by colleges and bible colleges.
While, just like everyone else, some of them just don't do anything but sit around and think up things to complain about. Just like the people who call Churches on Monday mornings and yell and scream at people who work there about flowers, or a misspelled word in the bulletin, i.e. Pontius Pilot instead of Pontius Pilate.
It takes a lot of patience to deal with these types of people. I feel like I excerpt so much patience toward them, that I have begun to loose patience toward others. It is true, over the last year I have lost almost all patience with stupid and ignorant people. At one time I could laugh stupidity and ignorance off and let it roll off my back, but not these days. I have honestly decided it is because I am working so hard to have patience with people with too much time on their hands.
So, what to do about this? I have come up with a plan. Be forewarned - I have always had these out of the box common sense ideas that are so simple people tend to overlook them. My plan is this: what if we hooked up inmates with these people who are so concerned about silly problems in Church, and let them spend all their time writing too each other?
I think this could be beneficial and wonderful to all involved. It would be a step in faith, yes, but maybe that is exactly the point. On one hand you have some folks that are so concerned about silly things in Church. You see, in my opinion there comes a point in Worship that you have to let go and have faith that although someone may have forgotten to order flowers or something is misspelled, God is there and working within people anyway. And then on the other hand you have people who are in prison and need faith. Really, they need faith in something. Faith to forgive, faith to be forgiven, faith to change their lives. (Please don't read this as my advocating for release of prisoners, but they need praying for, as do we all.) I think these people could be a great source of faith and encouragement for each other.
I realize I probably have offended some of you who call and complain to your Church, and I realize many of you probably have strong feelings against criminals - a lock them up and forget them mentality. Please don't be offended. I assure you that I have a soft spot in my heart for those people who called and complained. I really do! They make me smile. Likewise, I assure you that I have family members who are victims of horrific crimes, and I know what long lasting affects these crimes have on people. But how can we be true Christians if we don't remember "For God so Loved the World" - not "for God so love the people that you think he should love."
So, I will continue to dream up ideas for my program. I may be off my rocker but these are things I think about all day. Good thing I am not running for public office huh? Hey, maybe one day you will hear about the "Too Much Time On Your Hands? Make A Difference - Write A Letter Program".... crazier things have happened.
This is what I always wanted to tell the people who called the Church, upset about something silly like flowers - "look out your window. Did the sun come up this morning? I thought so." BUT I never did say anything like that, I just listened and assured them we would make sure it wouldn't happen again. Now, I have the desire to write some of these inmates who are trying to file lawsuits and say something just as smart. BUT, I am not.
You might think this is crazy, but these two very different groups of people have a lot in common. What is that? Well, these are all people with a lot of time on their hands. Obviously, we can all agree that inmates have a lot of time on their hands. Granted some of them use the resources available to get their GED, and some take classes offered by colleges and bible colleges.
While, just like everyone else, some of them just don't do anything but sit around and think up things to complain about. Just like the people who call Churches on Monday mornings and yell and scream at people who work there about flowers, or a misspelled word in the bulletin, i.e. Pontius Pilot instead of Pontius Pilate.
It takes a lot of patience to deal with these types of people. I feel like I excerpt so much patience toward them, that I have begun to loose patience toward others. It is true, over the last year I have lost almost all patience with stupid and ignorant people. At one time I could laugh stupidity and ignorance off and let it roll off my back, but not these days. I have honestly decided it is because I am working so hard to have patience with people with too much time on their hands.
So, what to do about this? I have come up with a plan. Be forewarned - I have always had these out of the box common sense ideas that are so simple people tend to overlook them. My plan is this: what if we hooked up inmates with these people who are so concerned about silly problems in Church, and let them spend all their time writing too each other?
I think this could be beneficial and wonderful to all involved. It would be a step in faith, yes, but maybe that is exactly the point. On one hand you have some folks that are so concerned about silly things in Church. You see, in my opinion there comes a point in Worship that you have to let go and have faith that although someone may have forgotten to order flowers or something is misspelled, God is there and working within people anyway. And then on the other hand you have people who are in prison and need faith. Really, they need faith in something. Faith to forgive, faith to be forgiven, faith to change their lives. (Please don't read this as my advocating for release of prisoners, but they need praying for, as do we all.) I think these people could be a great source of faith and encouragement for each other.
I realize I probably have offended some of you who call and complain to your Church, and I realize many of you probably have strong feelings against criminals - a lock them up and forget them mentality. Please don't be offended. I assure you that I have a soft spot in my heart for those people who called and complained. I really do! They make me smile. Likewise, I assure you that I have family members who are victims of horrific crimes, and I know what long lasting affects these crimes have on people. But how can we be true Christians if we don't remember "For God so Loved the World" - not "for God so love the people that you think he should love."
So, I will continue to dream up ideas for my program. I may be off my rocker but these are things I think about all day. Good thing I am not running for public office huh? Hey, maybe one day you will hear about the "Too Much Time On Your Hands? Make A Difference - Write A Letter Program".... crazier things have happened.
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