ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, July 21, 1996 TAG: 9607190013
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: BACK PEW
SOURCE: CODY LOWE
The start-and-stop rain varied from downpour to drizzle in just a few minutes. Typical summer weather for these parts.
As I was driving out of the mall parking lot, I noticed in the grass just beside the exit road that the sprinklers had popped up out of their burrows and were spraying away at full blast.
It's the kind of incongruity that makes us chuckle or shake our heads or both. It seems so typical of the way life is far too often. The wrong reaction at the wrong time. Good intentions gone awry.
The double drenching - if carried on too long - could actually drown the grass in too much of a good thing.
Then - considering the nature of such things - we wonder if during a drought the sprinklers would refuse to come on at all and leave the now-soggy sod to wither in the summer sun even when a veritable flood of life-giving water was readily available at the turn of a faucet.
It made me think of the way we conduct business in our churches more often than we'd probably like to think.
After the death of a fellow church member, we almost bury the survivors in fried chicken, baked beans and potato salad in the days before the funeral. In our zeal to demonstrate our concern, our good intentions may be almost smothering.
Then we frequently forget the family almost as soon as we drive out of the cemetery after the burial.
When we baptize or confirm new members, we cluster around offering congratulations and hugs. We have often spent weeks ahead of time preparing them for their new lives with us. And as we receive them into membership, many of us have formal ceremonies where we pledge our ongoing support.
Then as we get into our cars in the parking lot, we have already forgotten our promises to be there when our new family members need us. Heaven forbid they should actually come to us for a favor.
When a new pastor comes to congregation, he or she is smothered with expressions of fealty, pledges of assistance, pronouncements of Christian love. For a few weeks, the family is likely to plump up on fresh-baked apples pies and invitations to Sunday dinners. Every face is decorated with a smile as the congregants shake hands on the way out.
But a few months later, the new pastor has become a troublemaker because he moved the first prayer to follow the first hymn, or she insists on making children feel welcome to the service. And who knew anyone could make a sermon that dull?
In so many cases, what begins as a font of good will and charity is transformed all too quickly into a dry well of understanding and sympathy.
Like the system of pipes and valves hidden beneath the soil to supply the mall's lawn sprinklers with the life-giving water they spray, we are filled with life-enriching potential. Released in the right amount, at the right time, that potential becomes fully realized to bless those around us.
The next time I'm inclined to join the crowd in showering the blessings of my company and concern on someone for some good cause, I'll remember the mall's sprinklers and their lesson of moderation.
LENGTH: Medium: 64 linesby CNB