Of Forks and Relationships

I found them in the car, in the center console where they had been since that day.  My wife, Jean, and I had visited a member in another community and were too full from lunch to have a piece of pie, so we decided to take one to go.  On the way home the food had settled and I stopped at a convenience store and got some plastic forks and napkins, and we went to the city park and shared the pie.  So the other day as I was cleaning the car I came across the forks, but I left them for another day and another time in some park in some small town. 

Jean often says, “just surprise me”, whether it is where we might go to eat or what we do on vacation. 

We too often become creatures of habit, doing the same things over and over again, in the same way.  Some habits and routines are okay and good to have.  But sometimes doing things in a new way helps us see things in a new perspective.  One of our members last Sunday was sitting in a different place in worship and I went up and asked her if she was feeling alright.  Not really, but I did ask her about sitting in a different place, to which she responded, she thought she would get a different perspective on things.  Jesus invites us to see things from a new perspective.  Jesus invites us to see things often as God sees things.  Jesus uses powerful images of unlikely people to speak about God and God’s grace and love.  Again and again we see it in the gospel narratives: a Samaritan woman at a well, a widow and her mite, a prodigal son and his loving father, a shepherd who leaves 99 sheep to go look for one lost lamb, and so many others. 

Sometimes we get set in our ways, we get in ruts and ride the ruts until it is quite difficult to get out of them.  It is true of people, communities, churches, and all kinds of institutions.  It not only can be difficult to get out of our ruts it can be difficult to see life outside of the ruts.  Our relationships can become that way.  Sometimes we find our relationships are suffering because they have become predictable and centered so much on ourselves that we fail to see the other person from a new and healthy perspective.  Look at things from a different perspective and act in a new way.  

The secrets to a great marriage:  forks in the center console and pie in the park; surprise each other; and sit in a different pew (see things from a new perspective).