Edgework

You don’t have to know where you are going to be a blessing to people along the way. (Terry Hiebert)

As I listened recently to a good sermon Terry Hiebert was delivering, the short sentence quoted above grabbed my attention. By now I have forgotten what the sermon was really all about, but this short statement remains emblazoned on my mind. When I told Terry I had appreciated that thought, he remarked that it had been an “off the cuff” remark, and not “officially” part of his sermon.

Isn’t that how life and learning often takes place? Sometimes it is not the well-planned sermon or the major theme of a book that reaches out to grasp our attention and hold it. Instead it is a thought, often inserted “by the way” into our communication with others that jumps out and sticks to you like wet snow. Whenever this happens I find it helpful to spend some time reflecting on why this particular idea resonated so deeply with me.

For starters, the thought expresses what we all know to be true; we don’t know where we are going. Oh yes, we can make plans for the day, for the week or even for a life-time. But how often have those plans worked out exactly as we had created them? I have at times been enchanted by efficiency experts who suggested that one should break an entire day into fifteen minute blocks and then assign a specific task to each block. That way, they say, you will be sure to get everything done that is important and what you had planned. The assumption being, of course, that those two things were one and the same.

I have tried this approach to time management but usually found it frustrating. Perhaps it just didn’t suit my personality. In any case, I did not find it particularly enjoyable to have my life cut up into these supposedly controllable chunks of time. Invariably something happened “by the way” to disrupt my carefully crafted timetable. And soon I began to see these interruptions in a negative light. By the end of the day, when I found myself completely off the rails, I was annoyed that I had been less than efficient.

Frequently, however, a few days after such a disaster, someone would thank me for something I had done or said on that particular day that had blessed them. Really, I thought; I had not planned for that to happen. I guess it just happened “by the way.” From my present life context, I find myself feeling sorry for those people who still think they know exactly where they are going and that they can control when and where they will be a blessing to people. I recommend a cold shower for such people to wake up to reality.

Just to illustrate the point I am making; I had planned to finish writing this article by noon today. But – you guessed it. I just got off the phone. Within the last hour I have been interrupted twice by persons close to me who needed someone to listen to them and be encouraged. In both cases our conversation proved to be a two-way blessing “along the way.” Now it will be past noon before I finish this piece.

Sometimes we have this notion that once we have our lives all together – when we are totally healed or when certain project are done or once we reach retirement – then we will begin to reach out and bless others. The problem is that seldom do we get to the place where all aspects of life are perfectly in order and we can deliberately set about blessing others. In his book, “When God Interrupts,” M. Craig Barnes makes a case for viewing life as a series of losses; or, we might say, a series of interruptions to our carefully laid plans. How often have we not experienced that, just when we think we have things under control in our lives, we round the bend to discover something unforeseen. Barnes suggests that we are all better off to expect this to happen and make the most of it by blessing people along the way.

Such a perspective levels the playing field. It is not just the highly-gifted and most efficient people who can bless others. Ordinary people living ordinary lives can be attuned to the possibility of blessing people along the way. Might it be that when the final curtain drops such spontaneous acts of blessing will be considered more valuable than all our carefully crafted projects?

I am not suggesting that we should never make plans or engage in projects. It is good to bring focus to life’s endeavors, and it is true that others will be blessed by our planned efforts. Baking an apple pie for a lonely neighbor will, no doubt, bless that person. But we should never underestimate the power of blessings that come from spontaneous acts, whether conscious or not.

Living this way is an adventure of sorts. Just to think, when you wake up in the morning, that there will likely be a variety of ways you can bless other people today can awaken a kind of anticipation within you. You say to yourself that somewhere, somehow you will have an opportunity to bless people. This perspective keeps you alert to those moments that pop up “by the way” in which you can bless others.

And we should not only be thinking about taking advantage of such opportunities out there in the big wide world all around us. Sometimes the blessing we leave along the way will touch people closest to us; perhaps a spouse, a child, a father or mother, a workmate – people you see every day and tend to take for granted.

Thanks Terry for your “by the way” comment about “by the way” opportunities to bless others along the way. So what will be my next blessing opportunity today?