February 28, 2008

Dear Friend: INCREASINGLY I LIKE the words “options”, “alternatives”, “contingency”. Some desireables (is that a word?!) may turn out not to work, turn out not to be affordable, turn out not to be after all “desireable”, so “options”. I like that. I have no quarrel with the thinking that there may very well in fact be one preferred way, one which is shorter, or quicker, or cheaper, etc, etc, but when it comes to the variety of interests, needs and concerns we most of us have, and the great variety most of us are, alternatives are nice, contingencies are helpful. Most weekdays I take the same route to work at church; it is familiar, I know the traffic patterns, I am prepared for the school busses and the trucks and other commuters, we get in line and make our way. It works well, nearly all the time. On Sundays, I take an entirely different route HOME FROM CHURCH; it takes a little longer, it is more varied, more interesting, it provides me with an alternative in case the usual way on weekends is blocked for some reason or other. Mostly I just like it. What I remind myself at this moment is that just knowing there IS an alternative, a contingency goes a long way to relieving the stress and frustration there might other wise be if the normal route was blocked, and I couldn’t use it. What I further remind myself is that this thinking has greater application. I do have my preferred ways, and often they have come about because of considerable effort and hard work. The time and energy spent on how we go about our Sunday worship or what to do in a Confirmation program can be considerable, and I put into them all I know how to do. Sometimes that works and sometimes it doesn’t; and there is the fact that still I most often have to do the best I can with what I have, alternatives, options, if there could be room for those, the out come can be better or even best for all. I am trying to keep that line of thinking part of my “game plan’. Glad to share how it is working. Glad to hear from you how (or even whether!) it works for you as well. Sincerely, Pastor Condon