Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Am I Normal?



Why is it helpful to know the process of transition? Many churches have found good preachers and many preachers have found a good work without ever hearing of Ending, The Neutral Zone, and The New Beginning. (See May 31, 2010 post.)

Knowing how things usually work helps me in a stressful situation not to feel weird. I can endure the pain of stress if I know it is normal to feel what I am feeling and to be going through the stages of a process.

 

I have developed a philosophy that has been helpful to me:

 

1. I have found that it is normal to be abnormal. If a normal day is: 72 degrees, clear sky, the wind is not blowing, all the family is well, all the appliances and cars are operating perfectly, my favorite teams are winning, and politics are going my way—I don’t have may normal days.

 

2. In an abnormal situation, I cannot make another person do anything. Often, I have people ask me, “Do you have everybody straightened out in the church where you are preaching?”. My answer is “NO!!! I am working on Jerrie Barber and he is giving me a fit. I haven’t started on the other people.” That eliminates a lot of stress.

 

3. In an abnormal situation, which is really normal—since it is normal to be abnormal—and I can’t make anyone else do anything, what is the best thing I can do right now to make things better? That may be difficult but the work is close to home.

 

One of my goals as an interim minister is to encourage people to see the principles of transition in their lives as we experience transition in the congregation.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Dalton’s 12-Year-Old-Trip


Recently we went with our fifth grandchild on our Grandparent-grandchild Twelve-Year-Old Trip. Someone gave us this idea about fifteen years ago and we have enjoyed it very much.

 

The year that each grandchild is twelve, we take him/her on a trip of their choosing (within 300 miles of Nashville). They choose where we eat and what we do during the four days we are gone.

Dalton, Jerrie Wayne and Terri’s son, will be twelve December 21. We took advantage of fall break and good weather to go to Pigeon Forge the week of October 11.

Dalton’s choices for the week were: Dollywood on Tuesday, Parrot Mountain on Wednesday, Sevierville church of Christ Wednesday night, Oconaluftte Indian Village in Cherokee, North Carolina Thursday. Thursday was also the main shopping day. We give the grandchildren money – half to spend for themselves and half to spend for others in their family. On the way back from Cherokee, we went to Clingman’s Dome. Friday morning we went to MagiQuest.


It was a great week. We are proud of Dalton, as we are of our other grandchildren. It was a delight to be with him.