Initiative

I don't know when I learned the word bored, and still can't remember when I first used it. As a child I always had something to do and always found "toys" in what was around me. I was like most kids, one who could imaginatively use the box of a stove or refrigerator as a big toy. I will never forget coming home from school one day to hear how my new bride had enjoyed a day babysitting a fellow seminarian's daughter. The girl was tiny and not even four, but Nellie said, "She said she was bored!" Bored? asks I. "Yes! Had you ever heard a child say they were bored?" No. I had by then used the word more than I needed, but to hear a child use it at that time astounded me.

In my career I have heard pastors say they are bored. And like hearing it from children, I don't like hearing that. It indicates to me that something is either wrong with the individual or his/her perception of the place where she or he is serving. As I was becoming a superintendent, a mentor who had twice served as DS said he once heard a dear friend and longtime colleague complain to him that the church had never appointed him to a place of opportunity. The mentor was sitting in his office and right across the street was an elementary school. He couldn't resist and said, "Look across the street, what do you see? I see opportunity that you're not taking advantage of!"

Initiative defeats boredom. Boredom, like being in a rut, indicates stagnant vision that has drained creativity and energy from a person. The child, like the pastor, that cannot see joy and fun possibilities in all things, needs our prayers. The person of initiative looks beyond the usual, sees possibilities and turns them into opportunities, and with passion, starts something new. Initiative sees a school and imagines children's ministries starting, with adult tutors and readers deployed to help impact lives, all the while calling attention to the spiritual background from which these new leaders and helpers come.

Initiative is hitting the piñata with eyes open, seeing the candy inside as yours!