Snakes On A Staff

"If you are cheerful, you feel good; if you are sad, you hurt all over. " (Proverbs 17:22 CEV)

I'm really glad someone figured out that one of the signs of a healthy church is abundant laughter. Life is full of pain and it can sit like a dark cloud on those who do ministry as a profession. We can become overwhelmed by the pressures of broken families, serious illness and death. Additionally, for those of us who also preach, Bill Hybels has mentioned that "Sundays come around with amazing regularity."

That's why I think it's amazing that our staff rarely gets together without something being said that leaves us all in stitches. Yesterday's lunch (appreciating us "bosses") ran the gamut of conversation from the possible merger of General Motors and Chrysler to the recent incident in which one of our most joyful servants had a mishap in an automatic car wash. I will only say this much: when you are helping one of the pastors by washing his minivan and your wife wonders which button to push to tell the outside temperature, DON'T turn her loose to push buttons until she figures it out. Those automatic sliding doors and self-opening rear door aren't very waterproof in the open position!

I'm not really sure how the conversation went to snakes. But the stories began. One guy fell out of a tree when he was a kid because he didn't believe it when his brother told him there was a snake inside that hole up there. Our Youth Minister chided Josh, the macho marine Office Manager, because he (one of her volunteers) wouldn't touch the "pet" python she had around her neck for a camp demonstration. One of the ladies grew up in Yuma and she told her girlhood story of the 5 foot rattlesnake that somehow got in the house and coiled under the TV set. AND our Children's Minister shared her terror that began when she was a girl. At Children's Camp, one of the boys put a garter snake down her back.

We laughed. We cheered. We ooooohed and aaaaahed.

None of us will sleep for a week!