"Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me." Psalm 51:10
One of our annual mega events was yesterday, the Fit for the King 5K Race/3K Walk/Kids' Run/Kids' Dash. It grows each year, and has become quite the undertaking. Yesterday, we had over 350 people compete in the events, and we fed close to 600. The preparation that is required to pull off such an event is massive. It really does "take a village" to make sure all the details are taken care of. There are lots of volunteers who give selflessly of their time doing less than fun tasks, but they do it "as unto the Lord", with a Servant's Heart that I talked about last week.
Since I am the Race Director, it was particularly challenging for me. Sure, it was time consuming and I was running here and there like a mad woman to get everything done, but the bigger challenge for me was with people. I am the first to admit that I have little tolerance when it comes to apathy and being inconsiderate. Though all the details regarding the event, how to pre-register, what time it was, what time to be there, the importance of making reservations if you were planning to eat, and all the other need-to-know things had been in the weekly bulletin for 8 weeks, on the big screens at both campuses, every Sunday, morning and evening, in the weekly WMW church wide e-mail for two months, on the blog every week for more than two months, on Facebook and on signage around the church, and announced from the pulpit, and even put in the hands of every woman that walked through the doors of the church on August 5th, apparently the majority of people knew nothing about it! How can that be? How can something be that well publicized and so many go about in such ignorance? I don't understand.
The deadline for making meal reservations was last Monday at noon. The reason for this is the food crew needed to know how much food to prepare and go and shop for it. However, by the deadline (which was also announced for two Sundays from the pulpit and in all the other aforementioned places) only 157 had called in for the meal and preregistered for the races, yet we fed nearly 600!!! How did anyone think that the food crew could come up with that much extra food? Does one really think that if they call in on Friday night that the crew, who is busy cooking and preparing, could drop what they are doing and go shop for more food? How inconsiderate! I was livid!
I ran into Pastor Roc and Jeralyn on Friday afternoon at Office Depot. I told Pastor that he needed to preach a sermon on it! He laughed and said he had a whole list like that, and I don't doubt that is true! LOL He said, "Don't grow weary Mrs. Pam." I replied, "Oh, I'm not weary, but I am growing horns." More laughter. I was only half kidding.
Everyone thinks, there's just four of us they will have plenty so I don't need to call. Wrong! There are 40 families or more just like yours who do the same thing. So what's the problem, aside from that? Sure, we made sure we had enough food, but what if that many had not shown up? It would have been very poor stewardship on our part to have wasted that much food. And the reason I was so irritated is that it is this way straight across the board with every activity in our church. People show up on Wednesday night without reservations and expect Mr. Wayne to have enough food to feed them, and get mad when he doesn't. What is wrong with us?
I really let Satan get the better of my attitude and amidst all of it, the Holy Spirit brought conviction to my heart about my attitude. He brought the scripture to my mind about how I needed to have a clean heart and a right spirit. Whew! That was a hard one. "But Lord, these people are driving me crazy with their lackadaisical attitudes." "It doesn't matter.."Create in me a clean heart, o Lord, and renew a right spirit within me." He repeated.
I had to pray that scripture many times from Friday to Sunday, because it still bothered me so much, but by the time I got to the race, all was forgotten and all I could feel was compassion and a desire for everyone to have a good time and for God to be glorified. That's what God can do! Had I kept that ugly attitude, I would have had some heads on a silver platter or two and then Satan would have had the victory.
We have to be mindful of our attitudes and the effect they can have on us and other people. A spirit of frustration can cause lots of hurt and division. I don't want to be a divider. I want to be a unifier, as the Holy Spirit works through me.
Please forgive me for all the bad thoughts I thought about some of you. I am a work in progress. I do desire all of God and all of what he has for me. I want to be a vessel through which he can accomplish much. I need a right spirit and a clean heart. It is a daily process, not a one-time thing.
How's your attitude? Are you a complainer? Do you get angry when everyone else doesn't do as you think they should? Do you need to have a clean heart and a right spirit created within you? Jesus is the Master Cleanser! He is the original Mr. Clean. Humble yourself before him and ask for him to cleanse you. He is faithful to his Word.
Pam Archer, Director
Women's Ministry
