Patience

July 5, 2018

Sometimes God uses our plans for purposes we never imagined. Back in May when we learned that our Dunkirk church building will be 100 years old on July 14, we decided to throw a community birthday party and began the planning for it. It’s been a stretch, a leap of faith for this small, older congregation to attempt such an event, but we’re giving it all we have. Plenty of details still need to be worked out, but the one that had me most worried was the promotional piece. We decided to do a direct mailing, but had no clue as to how to go about it.

Enter Joe. Sinclairville’s pastor Joe has had experience with direct mailings, and walked me through the basics. Some of the details however, I could only find out at the Dunkirk Post Office. I visited twice, talked with four different people, and received the same answer: “We don’t know how to set this up.” Calling the Buffalo specialist multiple times resulted only in my leaving multiple messages on his answering machine. It was, to put it mildly, frustrating. If he happened to be on vacation, the entire project could crash. 

Everyone has choices. The same people who in February groused about the bitter winter are now complaining about the heat. But they don’t have to; they choose their mood. I had a choice. I could complain or I could see this as an opportunity for me to grow in patience. I chose the latter, and later was blessed by our Sinclairville/Cassadaga postmistress who patiently walked me through the process. 

Learning patience wasn’t part of my plan for this project, but it was apparently part of God’s plan, for which I am thankful tonight. I am also thankful for our postmistress who saved the day and perhaps even the entire program.