church family

I've wondered why God has me working at a church, and this church in particular. I could say I felt called, and perhaps I was, but honestly there were some pragmatic considerations beside the joy of working for Jesus. Like decent health insurance at a reasonable cost, and a flexible work schedule.

After a short while I began to discover how different this environment is from working in the corporate world. One of the last places I worked (a major player in the cell phone industry) gave lip service to "living a balanced life" and family priorities. They didn't mean a word of it. Work hours were insane, and don't even think about calling in sick. Much of the management was cranky, unskilled and sometimes downright mean.

 Here, family comes first, no kidding. Sick kids  and spouses, and important family events take precedence, and the entire staff juggles if necessary to give the person who needs it the time and space to attend to whatever needs to be attended to. It's so very different.

But the thing that has most surprised me, the gift I didn't expect or see coming (thank you Jesus!) is this. I am working in the midst of a functional family. They're not perfect by any means. But they try, they really try, to be cooperative and helpful and they care about each other. Some of these people have worked together for twenty years, and ten or more years is not uncommon on the staff. They have been through seasons when they were at odds, angry or disappointed with each other. And yet, they are respectful at the least, and loving and generous at the best. They are more transparent with each other than I've ever seen a group of people be outside of therapy. They can afford to be. And when they mess up, they really want to do better - for each other and for God.

I come from a very dysfunctional family, and although my marriage now is very good, for all practical purposes, my husband is my family. My sister and her family live in another city, my husband's brother and his family live in another state, and parents are all deceased. My marriage history is convoluted and would take pages to describe, but let's just say there was a lot of dysfunction there, before I married Walt. I never thought I would experience a loving and functional family in this lifetime - and now I have one. It's amazing to watch people interact with grace and patience, kindness and respect, and forgiveness when things get ugly, which of course they do. We're human after all. Jesus gave me much more than I expected when I went to work for him. Hallelujah!