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

June 2003

A Movie, Urethane, and Learning the Lessons hidden in every leaf and rock.

By Rev. Michael Lee Burgess

I was invited to go to a movie and since that doesn't happen very often, I jumped all over it. Then I found out what movie we were going to see, it was Bullet Proof Monk. Oh well, it will be fun, and it was. But I look at movies differently than most people. As I was watching the movie I thought of a prayer I used in worship from the United Methodist hymnal called "Prayer to the Holy Spirit" O Great Spirit, whose breath gives life to the world, and whose voice is heard in the soft breeze: We need your strength and wisdom. Cause us to walk in beauty. Give us eyes ever to behold the red and purple sunset. Make us wise so that we may understand what you have taught us. Help us to learn the lessons you have hidden in every leaf and rock. Make us always ready to come to you with clean hands and steady eyes, so when life fades, like the fading sunset, our spirits may come to you without shame. Amen.

The part that came to me in the movie was, learning the lessons hidden in every leaf and rock. It was the original impulse behind the discovery of science in European culture. Looking for the "footsteps of God" in God's creation (talk to me sometime about the history of science). So when in the movie the monk was trying to teach the New York pickpocket to think and see with the heart he said, "Why do hot dogs come in packages of 10 and hot dogs buns come in packages of 8?" The pickpocket said, "So you always have to buy more." The monk said, "Wrong, but good try." When it comes to meaning, eternal truth and learning to live, instead of just finances, the monk was right.

Now it is a day later and I am trying to put another coat of Urethane on Turtle Manor's south floors before mom and dad get back from Georgia and Virginia. I have spent 2 hours trying to find everything I need to get started and it is frustrating. First I have to get a new vacuum cleaner bag, then find and install a new pad on the applicator, (its like a lambs wool sponge on a stick), a clean stirring stick for the Urethane (and one can of Urethane took 40 minutes to stir). Everything is taking much much longer than I could imagine possible.

What lesson can I learn from this? I can either use up a tremendous amount of energy being frustrated, so I have no energy left to work with, or just see them as small projects, that are part of the big one and I am accomplishing each one, even though the big one is still waiting. Then instead of being angry that I am not getting anything done, I can check off, find vacuum, assemble vacuum, take it to Turtle Manor, find bag, replace bag, throw old bag away, vacuum floor, find cans of Urethane, find clean stir stick, mix Urethane, problem solve mixing issues, find paint thinner, thin Urethane, remix, set aside problem can, mix last can, find pad, assemble applicator, problem solve applicator and blending issues, find large disposable aluminum cooking pan, bring back to pour Urethane in. Looking at it like that, it is not frustrating and angry, it quite a lot of things accomplished in two hours. That frees up enough energy to actually get started putting Urethane on the floor.

Last time I put Urethane on the floor I got bubbles. Bubbles cause little rough pits like sandpaper when the floor dries and annoys my mom. This time I slid the applicator very very slowly across the floor, trying to run a thin bead before the pad. If I moved any faster, bubbles started forming, and trying to go back and smooth them out, made streaks and added more bubbles in different places as well. I am getting frustrated and want to throw down the stick, but I can't stop in the middle, and this is my job to do and it needs to be done.

So what can I learn from this? Perfection is not the measure of success. You can have excellence, but not perfection. If I want to accomplish the task, I have to be willing not to be perfect, or it will never get done. I can also learn that sometimes the only way to do anything is to do it slowly. No matter how much effort I put into it, or how hard I want to work at it, the job can only be done well slowly. In fact there are many things in life like that. A child grows to maturity comes over time, a faith relationship with God becomes strong as you live with God over time, a marriage becomes the deep, rich and empowering thing God calls it to be, only over time. It changes from intense excitement, into warm empowerment overtime and you can only hurry it a long a little, though you can slow it down a lot with anger, expectations, and anxiety.

It is five hours after I started this project and I am frantically trying to finish the last tiny bit, clean up, put stuff away and take a shower. I am twenty minutes late to my meeting with Angie to talk about the new web page ideas. I rush there to find out she has spent the time doing preliminary work on the new Day Care part of our Web site and has not even noticed the passage of time.

What can I learn from this? Do your best, things go wrong, but keep going and never give up. Grace happens, especially when you do not deserve it, if you just keep going and give God a chance to help. I can't take that for granted, or misuse this gift or it will most assuredly rebound on me, but giving up when you can't fit it all in, makes sure I have chosen the path of failure. Instead I can keep doing everything I can, and ask for help, for the grace of God surrounds life and is constantly breaking in.

Well now it has been three days and I go back to look at the dried floor in the full sunlight. There are thin streaks in the Urethane. I think maybe it was because I went the short way across the room, which was across the grain of the boards, or maybe it was because I used an applicator refill and didn't get it tight enough, or probably because I didn't thin the Urethane enough and had to use the old can when I realized I was short and the Urethane was stiff and needed to be thinned even more than I did, and I didn't have time to go buy a new one can so I used it. So do I get angry and stomp off, or do I sand one more time, and try to use what I have learned and do it again for the third time? (See lesson three)

Remember the hot dogs? At the end of the movie the pickpocket had grown up, met a girl and found his life's work. As the monk was leaving the pickpocket said to him, "I've got an answer to your question; You don't always get what you want, so treasure what you have." Then he squeezed the hand of the lady by his side. The monk smiled at him and said, "You've got it." Then walked away into the swirling crowd.

Well I hope to do some sanding tonight, and maybe lay down Urethane in the morning. I had hoped to do this three days ago, but things keep getting in the way. (See lesson one). By the way, we can help each other a great deal when we encourage our brothers and sisters, not to give, to keep trying and that they are worthy of love.

May God be close to you and open your eyes and heart to all the lessons hidden in every tree and rock.

Your brother-in-Christ, Reverend Michael Lee Burgess

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