My Doofus Picnic

Last week I experienced a "God moment".

But it took me more than an hour to see what God was doing.

Such a doofus!

I hosted picnic lunch for about 35 pastors and ministry persons.

Two different ministerial groups met together, 

just to relax and eat and and visit together.

No other agenda, really.

I was stressed about getting the picnic pavilion clean,

the tables set, the food in place.

My wife (God bless her) had prepared most of the food at our home the night before.

Then (with help from Steve the church custodian)

I spent most of the morning getting things set up.

By 11:00am I had done all I could do.

I made a quick run to the bank. 

When I returned, I was surprised to see half a dozen people there, 

thirty minutes early.

As I got closer, I realized that these were unfamiliar faces.

What's up?

I introduced myself, and learned that these were homeless persons, 

wanting to voice a complaint or two.

What?!

Three men and three woman, transported there by an outsider, 

somebody I loved but didn't much like.

I was irked.

Here are homeless people, coming to mess up our pleasant, no-agenda picnic.

Why now?

The homeless kept talking to me, like I wanted to hear what they had to say.

A large, middle-aged white woman in a sack-like dress.

A large black man with a baseball cap and work boots.

A young man with a wide necktie. He had dressed up for the occasion.

The more they talked, the more irked I became.

I was the host, but my friend Jon was the leader of the event.

How would he handle it?

Fortunately, Jon handled it well.

After everyone had eaten a nice lunch, 

several of the homeless persons shared briefly with us.

We learned that homeless women have no place to shower in our city 

unless they pay $6.00 at the Rec Center or YMCA.

The pastors set a plan in motion 

to develop a voucher system for homeless women to shower 

and offered $400 to begin funding it.

As I said, it took me more than an hour 

to catch on to what God was doing.

He had an agenda, whether we had one or not.

And a good time was had by all -- eventually.

Lesson learned -- eventually.