revelations in unexpected places

I think God must be a pretty funny guy. Not dumb and dumber kind of slapstick humor (don't get me wrong, I love dumb and dumber), but a more dry sense of humor, something more The Office style. You know, the clever jokes that make you think and then have you doubled over laughing. Like the guy who says the funniest things with a straight face and then keeps on talking as if he didn't even know he were funny. I've thought about this before as people have pointed out things in the Bible that are just glimpses at God's sense of humor. I'm thinking about it again as Jordan and I talked about a revelation we both had on our vacation last week ... for us an unexpected place for a spiritual "eureka!"

As we were hiking around Denver, his aunt asks "so, what kind of volunteer work do you guys do?" To which my immediate response (and I think Jordan's, too) was "volunteer work? um, well, we, uh, don't um, really do volunteer work." We didn't say that out loud, because that would be embarrassing. We're church goers. Faithful Christians looking to do God's work and will in our lives. We want to help people. Make a difference. Be Jesus' hands and feet. But we also want to be honest and real with people, including ourselves. We've been thinking about this stuff quite a bit in the last months, but no one had asked us such a pointed question that required, in a sense, a "yes" or "no." And, the truth is, the answer is no. We've gotten so wrapped up in busyness, and busy church work - Sunday morning Bible class, church, Sunday evening church, Tuesday night at the UCC, Wednesday night church, Jordan is starting a guys study Monday mornings, we're starting life groups this week. Yes, I definitely think those are valuable, godly ways to spend our time. But what's left after all that? For us it's homework, work, dishes, laundry, class, grocery shopping, cooking, bill paying, budgeting, wanting time together, wanting time to relax, wanting more time with my horse, wanting time for hobbies, needing sleep.

And the result of all that is a long list of people we want to have over for dinner, but never have a free night or energy to follow through. A list of volunteer work we'd like to do but can't see how to squeeze it in. A list of ideas for non-program church stuff, like planning mission trips and contributing to the website and finding an older woman to mentor me and prayer groups. And it all leaves me feeling like I need to put the breaks on, cancel everything and do a major overhaul of my life. But then, I look at the list and just can't see what to cut or how to rearrange and re-prioritize.

So in the end, I still don't have it figured out. But, I do know this -- when Jordan and I got back home, we realized we both had the same reaction to that one innocent question. So what volunteer work are we doing? Not sure about that yet, but we're hoping we can find a better balance between the important fellowship, Bible study, church family activities and the work of intentionally going out to care for others, contribe to the community and share Jesus' love.

God is faithful. He will show us His way. I just hope we can see it and are willing to follow.