One of the interesting things about employment law (my profession) is the attitudes that you have to deal with. It is amazing how many things there are in people's heads.

People think (and often say) the most amazing things. They believe that they have some special insight into truth, perhaps, or that their education is somehow more important than their intelligence. People who are educated (lawyers, doctors, etc.) will often give very little credit to people who do their work. They have the idea that their secretary or assistant is "not as bright" as they are.

Women have dealt with these things for years, with men who work in the world assuming that they are "smarter" than their wives who stay at home. It is certainly possible that they are smarter, but it is not at all a logical conclusion and cannot possibly be true in all cases. In any given situation, there is no reason to assume that the husband is either smarter or brighter than his wife.

As an attorney, I deal with a lot of attorneys, who have all passed law school and bar exams, but they are not necessarily the sharpest knives in the drawer. The skill it takes to pass law school and a bar exam may not include being very quick on the uptake or wise in dealing with people.

The reality of our lives is that our intelligence or "brightness" is almost entirely separate from our experience and education. We are not justified in thinking that someone in a "lesser" job is therefore not as bright as we are, because they may be much brighter. 

The best legal secretary I ever had was an interesting person. She was a secretary (so a natural object of scorn by foolish attorneys). She was a member of an odd religious cult. She kept crystals on her desk to which she talked. She dressed in a very unimpressive manner. She seemed like a flake. 

But, she was brilliant. She had been a science student at an Ivy League college when she was young. She left college because she fell in love with a man and moved away as his wife. No one knew that who just saw a legal secretary.

You are who you are because of what has happened to you. It is not because you are brilliant or because you are not brilliant. Your success is not proof of your greatness and the people who work for you are not your inferiors, as you may think, except in position. They may know more than you think.

Take some time this week to think about and care about the people with whom you work. They are where God has placed them for His reasons. They may be a lot smarter, a lot brighter, and a lot more interesting than you think they are. 

Loving your neighbor, after all, includes loving the neighbor who works for you. Do not sin against them by assuming they are less than they are.

One of my indelible memories of childhood (or teenagerhood, at least) is a conversation with my father about tennis racquets. I wanted some expensive racquet and, it seemed to me, that he did not understand how important this was to me at all. Actually, it was typical youthful nonsense and I did not need the racquet.

Still, racquets do matter, we are told. Non-tennis players think this foolish, but we tennis guys "demo" racquets and will pay a lot of money for a racquet. People become obsessed with some new racquet and can't wait to get one, thinking it will make them a great tennis player. Golfers are the same with new drivers, new irons, and new putters. The reality is that we are who we are and there is no club that hits a shank any better than our old one does. 

Anyway, I was playing tennis last night and broke a string on my racquet, with the result that I had to use an old racquet with which I have not played in 14 months or so. It was amazing how different everything was with the old racquet. Every hit felt different, because it had different strings and was strung at a different pressure and weighed less than my current racquet. I could serve really well and volley okay, but my groundstrokes were terrible.

I have played tennis since high school. You would think that "any racquet" would be good enough, but, in fact, every racquet is different. Even such a little change makes a big difference in the experience.

I think we need to keep this in mind when we make changes in any area of life, but especially in churches. Every change that you see as small (as my father saw the racquet issue) is actually much bigger than you think it is. Changing from one set of songs to another or from one "room arrangement" to another seems small to you, but it may seem big to someone else. Just a little thing can make such a big difference in the experience.

As teachers and as preachers and as brothers and sisters in Christ, we must be aware of how big a difference even little things can make in the lives of those we love. And, of course, as Christ instructed us, we love them all.

Don't we?

Well, yesterday was Valentine's Day, the day on which men spend money on their women. Today is Half Price Chocolate Day, when women spend money on themselves. Strange, isn't it? Too bad that Brach's Conversation Hearts never seem to go on sale.

Anyway, now we have kind of a strange interlude for businesses. Since July, when they started Back To School Days, we have gone in sequence from Back to School to Halloween to Thanksgiving (which is Black Friday stuff) to Christmas to Valentine's Day. Now, they have nothing big until Easter, which is two months away. We will see Easter stuff right away (I have already seen some), but there is no real pressure for awhile.

We move from season to season in the same way that farmers used to do, except that our seasons are make-believe and theirs were real. Marketers drive our seasons just as the sun drove their seasons. Everything works around the calendar for both us and them. Such is life.

But, it does get old, doesn't it? Sometimes, you sit down and think about how much time has passed over the years. Another Christmas is here, we say, just like the old ones, but it is really very different. A new Easter is coming, an old Valentine's Day has passed, and we just go along.

Such is God's will for our lives. We live one day at a time, no matter what we think we are doing. The grocery store will put up its Easter stuff today (in all probability), right next to the half-off Valentine's Day shelves. Someone will complain about "creep" of the holidays. But, really, it does not matter.

What I mean is that I have to live today. Easter and Christmas and Halloween and birthdays and anniversaries and planting days and harvest moons are not at the heart of my life. If I lived a year in a place with none of those things, my life would not be significantly affected. Men created all these things. But God gave me a life.

My wife, my children, my job, my church, my friends, do not rely on these things at all. They are the things God has given me to care about.

As for "holiday creep," I say "fine." It means I can buy Conversation Hearts more often (which I like) and it helps business, so why do I care that Easter is two months away? Malted Milk Easter Eggs are available. They are not Conversation Hearts, but the white colored ones are pretty good.

If you have been paying attention (or if you have these things e-mailed to you), you know that the website had a bit of a fit this week. First, it created a whole series of blank blog posts. Then, it sent an e-mail with several old blog posts. Since then, I have been off-line.

Part of it is trying to figure out what happened. Another part is trying to avoid it again. Trouble is, these are computers, and it is hard to figure out how to avoid it. When something goes wrong, the natural tendency is to back off and do nothing, because that way you avoid the hassle. I have also started working in a new firm, which makes my days a bit more interesting and filled. So, nothing for a few days.

This is how we are, isn't it? Most of us do not like to mess things up and we do not like for things to mess us up. Our status quo is what we want. We want things to be simple and reliable and easy to use. We do not want things to be complicated or untrustworthy.

So, let's think a minute about this, from a different perspective. Stop thinking about this from your side (about stuff you use) and think about it from the other side, from the side of people who rely on you. When we are the person relied upon, and we fail (as we all sometimes fail), we have a very different view. From the "we failed" side we immediately look for forgiveness and (usually) forgetfulness. We want people to "understand" what happened and, if possible, to decide it wasn't our fault.

I hate that the website freaked out. But when I freak out, when I fail, I want everyone to forgive me right away. As a teacher, sometimes I say things badly or even say bad things (two very different things). I want people to understand and accept that I, too, fail. I do not want them to be angry with me or resentful. I do not want them to step aside from me and never trust me again.

When you fail, how do you react? I have seen so many people react as if they were the one with a grievance. You know what I mean. You make a mistake and, when someone calls you on it, you react as if they were the problem. You tell them about all the things you have done right and about how you did not get much sleep last night and, too often, about how unfair they are being because they are angry with you for being wrong. Finally, and worst of all, you may start telling them about how wrong they have been in the past.

So, I will say this about the whole website fiasco. It never told me it was right. It never responded to me by claiming that I should be more understanding or demanding that I somehow recognize how great it has always been. It did not remind me of the times I have messed up. It just went back to working.

I wish I were more like the website in that sense. I wish that I accepted my errors and just went back to work, not trying to deny them or justify them or use them as an excuse to hurt other people.

Made any mistakes lately?

Well, it's another First Sunday. We have a special page for First Sunday classes and it explains what we are doing on First Sunday, but I thought some more explanation might be useful.

A lot of years ago, while teaching young people, I realized that all they do in Sunday School classes is sit and listen. The topics are chosen by the teacher, who is not in their generation at all. So, I decided to have a Sunday every month where they could ask questions. We did it on the First Sunday and the idea has stuck with me.

Teachers, you see, really don't know what is going on in the lives of their students. The range and scope of the issues faced by a class of 40 people is stunning, and I cannot possibly anticipate or address everything they have to face. From the false teachers they will encounter on TBN and the local "Christian" station to just everyday ideas they hear from friends, they face challenges all the time, challenges I do not know.

So, once a month, we have a free class where they can ask whatever is bothering them. We have all kinds of questions in our First Sunday classes and the first question is the question we answer. This has all kinds of benefits for the class and the teacher.

Not only do they get their questions answered, but they also get to learn how to work with the Bible and with the truths of God. Whatever they ask is important to them and they need to see how to use scripture. It is not about giving them a pat answer, but about walking them through the whole process of using scripture to answer a real life question.
 
It is also good for the teacher, because it forces me to actually address something I have not prepared to address. Here is the oddity for most preachers with whom I speak -- they cannot imagine doing this. They will take questions in advance (so they can prepare), but they will not answer questions from a group of people. How can this be true?

After all, we tell our congregations to go out and witness, to share their faith, to address the unbelievers around them. In doing so, they will have to answer questions and respond to objections for which they are not prepared. Why do we think they can do, with unbelievers, what we are not willing to do in the family of God?

And it shows people that you know what you are doing. There is nothing quite the same as being able to ask a question and get an answer right away. It shows not only how to use the Bible, but how well the teacher knows the Bible.

So, listen to some of our First Sunday classes. You may be surprised at how pleasant it is to share scripture with a group of believers on a Sunday morning.