Sometimes the Lord allows us to have challenging weeks and days. Last week began with the tragic news that one of our elders, 45 years old with three teenage children, dropped over dead while working with his son on an Eagle Scout project at our church. A day later I learned that my cousin had died following a stroke. Then a very difficult problem with our Awana program developed which consumed much of my time. Next came the news that a senior friend of ours had terminal cancer with just months to live. That was followed by news that my aunt's condition had worsened and that the grandchildren were called home to be with her. But then the Lord allowed us to have a great break in the stress as we were able to go to Penn State on Saturday to watch an exciting football game. Despite the fact that the game started at 3:30 rather than noon as I had expected, we braved the heavy traffic on a beautiful day and really enjoyed ourselves there. Then, after returning home at about 9:45, we prepared for a challenging Sunday. My schedule called for me to teach the Awana training class, then work on solving the Awana problem between services, and then counting both offerings and preparing the church deposit during the second service. From there I was to rush to Ephrata at 12:15 to attend a luncheon honoring Bob Gehret, a close friend of my dad. Next it was back to church to visit our elder's family before the 4 pm memorial service. Finally it was to return home to host our small group from church at 6 pm. There was no time for supper, which I guess I don't need anyway. We didn't expect, however, to wake up that day and find that somebody had demolished and stolen our mailbox. So before leaving for church I called the police and was told that I would need to meet an officer sometime that day to file a report. I worked that in between the Ephrata trip and the visitation. Also, when I got to church that morning I discovered that because of rushing around I had forgotten my materials for teaching my class. Fortunately we are only a little over five minutes from the church so I was able to rush home to get what I needed. Later that night we were able to finally sigh with relief having made it through a busy week and day. Today we are just exhausted but we are also facing another very heavy week with appointments, meetings, a trip to Pinebrook, and our annual Awana conference on Saturday. How did we ever do it before I retired? Now we've all had days like mine was yesterday. So, I'm not complaining. And I wouldn't call it a bad week or day because much was accomplished. Here is what a bad day might really look like. I heard of a carpet installer who had worked for hours completing an installation in a room. When it was all done he went to have a cigarette, only to find that his pack was missing. Then he discovered a small lump under the carpet. Realizing that it would take hours to tear up the carpet and relay it, he decided to take his hammer and just smash the lump and then stomp on it to flatten it out. He did this and it worked perfectly. He then called in the owner for her approval. When she came she said to him, " Here is your pack of cigarettes that I found out in the hall. Now if I could only find my canary!" Now that's a bad day. I hope you have a great one!
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