I got home late last night from a board meeting and then had a hard time getting to sleep because I was thinking about the meeting. Mind you, I'm an early-to-bed kind of guy, so getting home at 10:30 p.m. is excruciating for me.
Anyway, I lay there in bed thinking, what has any of this stuff got to do with God? I mean, we spent an hour talking about boilers and telephone service and locks on doors and insurance. That was before we even got to the fun stuff like budgets. As I was stripping off my clothes in the dark (my wife had already gone to bed), I was thinking, "This is what I was called to the priesthood for?"
And then I got it. This is what it means to be part of a community.
Seriously.
I hate a lot of the chores that go along with being a family member. Cooking breakfast, cleaning gutters, taking out trash. Don't even get me started about household budgets (where I'm even worse). But it is part of being in a family. I'll sit down with my kids and do homework despite the tears and the "You don't understand!" because it's what families do.
And, like it or not, the family called "Church" has its chores, too.
That won't make me any better at understanding the church budget or getting excited about fixing holes in the graveyard. But I belong there just as much as at the altar or the food pantry or the hospital bedside. I'm guessing you do, too.
