FEELING CRABBY?

This Christmas, I was so elated to have my daughter and new son-in-law here for a whole week and yet, by the end of the week, I was feeling a bit like Crabby Appleton. Some of you may remember Crabby from the old cartoon series, “Tom Terrific.” He was crabby about EVERYTHING!

As my week wore on, I was annoyed that my daughter was using MY bathrobe and that someone else’s device was in MY phone charger and that MY early dinner routine was disrupted and MY choice for a movie was overruled. Get the drift?

I have been living alone for so long that I’ve become attached to my own rituals and routines and choices – AND to my ability to do pretty much what I want to do, when I want to do it. In fact, I’ve become so set in my ways that I become a bit crabby when something or someone intrudes. And, this rigidity and crabbiness almost kept me from fully appreciating the wonderful time with my family.

I thought of this last Sunday when our Conference Minister, Bill Worley was with us. He pointed out something quite obvious; something I’ve read in lots of church articles and reports: We are so attached to sitting in OUR same seat every week that newcomers arrive and think we really don’t like each other or that we aren’t a real community of loving Christians. In fact, we are soooo attached to sitting far away from each other that we’d rather stay where we are than move closer together. We’d rather stay where we are than grow. And, when someone suggests that we move a little bit, we become crabby.

My own time with my kids reminded me that my inflexibility and my crabbiness can get in the way of having a good time, of learning from them, of deepening our relationship. Wouldn’t that be sad if I let that happen? Isn’t it sad that we let that happen in the church? (Not just with where we sit in worship, but in all kinds of ways that separate us.)

Maybe it’s time for us to sit in a different place, talk with some folks we don’t know or don’t see very often, sit close enough to show we care…. Who knows what might happen of we don’t get set in our ways?

Blessings, Laura Lee