Olive Crest United Methodist Church
7180 North 60th Street
Omaha, Nebraska 68152

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Rev. Debra Tompsett-Welch

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The Spiritual Life

September 1998

What is the difference between an adventure and absolute disaster?

By Rev. Michael Lee Burgess

When you are trying to live a life in Christ, that means living in a Christ like way in your ordinary life, all the time, even when things are going very, very wrong. So "how do you do that?" First of all, I'm not talking about one of those mountain top experiences, when everything is bathed in light and the veil between worlds is thin and glory streams through. I am talking very ordinary time here, yet still a time when good can be chosen out of bad, adventure out of disaster. Well, I think I have learned a little bit about living out the attitude of adventure and making the best of interruptions which I think Jesus shared this last month at that most disaster prone of human events, the wedding.

My friend's, the Jackson's, wanted me to come out to Longmont, CO and do a wedding for Connie and Grahm. I should have known that this would be a different kind of trip. They are not what many would call ordinary people. They are British citizens, have lived and taught in black South Africa during apartheid, and Tony works on computers all over the world while his wife Elizabeth has taught in many of the universities all over the world. They have two children, Freya and Graham, and Graham decided to marry Connie (she helped with that decision), so would I come out and help out with this? Well of course, it is one of the great things about being clergy, so off I go. The first disaster was that they neglected to send me an invitation with the address for Connie's family home where the wedding and rehearsal were to take place, and directory assistance had difficulty finding their phone number (the regional supervisor was able to figure it out though). Then I find out the rehearsal is over an hour's travel time away with only an hour left and none of them can come get me. My friend Chad says he'll drive me up there (and we almost made it on time too. Not the first of the wild rides I'll have on this trip.) Well I get up there and find out that they are down in the meadow on a little wood platform dad built for them and it is raining. It's going to be an outdoor wedding and all back up plans have fallen through, so I wander down and we get started (and very very wet). But everybody is pretty cheerful about it. Instead of grumbling, they think that this is the sort of thing that would just have to happen on their wedding rehearsal and Connie can't stop grinning and that sort of influences everybody else. Well we get through it all right and go back up to help with the decorations and preparations for tomorrow. The party is going to be in the house Connie's mom and dad are adding on to and refinishing, said project to have been finished a month ago, but now scheduled for a month or two in the future. So bare plywood is on the floor and bare sheet-rock with plug-ins and wires are the walls. But that is working out too.

I was looking around and thinking to myself, "Many people would be having hysterics by now." "But the 'can do' attitude is making this fun, despite everything." The relatives from all over the world were starting to arrive and they started finding places for everyone to sleep. I got the neighbor down the road and a lovely place in the basement. But the next day I woke to threatening sky's and a forecast of rain. And yes it did rain. It rained lots and all the chairs and everything else got wet. But I told them to wait a bit and 30 minutes later it let up, we handed the guests towels for their chairs and sent them down the hill. Then the Land Rovers lurched to life and the wedding got started. Despite some mud on the Brides dress, everything went very well. Then right after the wedding was finished, I exhibiting a gift of prophecy that I didn't know I had. I told the photographer, "You've got only about 10 minutes before it starts raining, you'd better use them." 12 minutes later it unloaded big and soon you couldn't see across the meadow as we crowded the wedding party under the tiny tarp and brought the Land Rovers down to ferry people out. But mud on her dress didn't seem important to Connie, and Grahm was just delighted everybody made it. So up the hill to the reception in the partially finished house.

I was looking around and kind of wondering what to do with myself and feeling a little out of it when a little girl I had talked to yesterday came up to me and said, "I'm glad you came." And suddenly I too was very glad I came. I knew I wanted to help, but suddenly I was feeling very rich for being able to help. Such a wonderful gift she gave me. Is this attitude of being grateful for small gifts, part of what makes it possible to cope and have an adventure instead of a disaster?

I didn't have very much time to contemplate this insight, because they tapped Freya to drive me to the airport because it was pretty far away and it was raining and she was the only one with racecar experience they could spare (both her and dad and brother did that sort of thing too). It was a wild ride, but you can only do so much in rain so I got to the Airport ticket counter with only 15 minutes to spare. The agent was pretty depressing and told me he didn't think I could do it and then spent 5 of my precious minutes confirming that there was no other way he could get me back to Omaha by Sunday morning at 9:00 a.m. So I told him, "Just give me my gate pass and I'll try anyway." I took off. He tried to be helpful and yelled after me, "Gate three". This turned out to cause me some trouble later, but was nice of him, just the same. After getting through security (they had to sniff my luggage for a bomb) I got on the Tram to ride down to Concourse three. There was a couple on the train who looked both very sad, angry, and depressed all at the same time. I asked how they were doing and they told me how they had been trying for hours to get things straightened out and how she had a job interview in Alaska in the morning and with a sniffle said, "I don't think I'm going to make it." Her husband also vented his emotions and I encouraged them and listened as our Tram moved from Concourse to Concourse. They seemed to feel encouraged, that at least someone had listened to them and the husband turned to wife and said, "Well Dear, you got your running shoes on?" She smiled and they gathered up their things for the dash. As soon as we got out we got them on a little cart, because their gate was way down at the end and I started looking for gate three. There is no gate three. He meant concourse three and my ticket said Gate 28. Now I wished I had rode with the couple. So I took a firm grip on my pulpit robe bag and started running. I thought to myself, now would be a good time to pray, "Dear God, help me." "For the sake of your son's and daughter's who are coming to worship you tomorrow, help me get home in time to lead their worship of you." I was dripping with wet inside my suit and staggering a little when I finally got up to the gate. The nice lady called down the jet way and told them to wait and I staggered on down. The jetway attendant told me to take my time, and when I finally staggered to my seat, I found out why. "Ladies and gentlemen, we have had a malfunction of a fuel gauge and for your safety we must pump out all the fuel and refuel using the fuel gauge on the fuel truck." "This should take about 2 hours." "Thank you for your patience." I almost burst out laughing, except I didn't have enough air for it. Well there were some more difficulties and we ended up with a different plane and finally arriving in Omaha somewhere around midnight. My ride forgot, but I got help from a janitor who called me a taxi and I got home with time to spare to get ready for Sunday. I had made it and had a really exceptional adventure, or did I just have a terrible trip with lots of disaster along the way to mess it up? And what makes the same experience one or the other?

When we talk about living a Christ like life, we mean doing this in the real world where we walk around and eat breakfast. What would Jesus have done with a wedding and a trip like that? How would he have approached it? What would his attitude have been? I felt part of it (what I think he would have done) when the little girl said, "I'm glad you're here." I also felt part of it when the couple was encouraged to try again for their flight to Alaska (by the way, they made it). I also felt it when the jet way attendant tried to help and the janitor helped me call a cab. The difference between disaster and adventure seems to happen when we stop looking to help or be helped, when we focus on what is wrong and not on what we can do now, and when we give up before the final bell, and then check to make sure it was the right bell. Three times I was told it couldn't be done, don't bother trying, but each time it worked out anyway. Not as planned, but still it worked out. Jesus went into the mountains to be alone and pray but the crowds found him and begged for teaching and healing. He needed time alone, but he "took compassion on them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd." Looking for the good, trying something new and not giving up, are all part of living a Christ-like life that goes through disasters and redeems them into adventures. It is not something we can do by ourselves, but it starts with us, with a decision to try that is then empowered by God. With your encouragement and with mine, may we all live lives of adventure.

Your brother-in-Christ, Reverend Michael Lee Burgess

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