Todays No

It’s our busiest week of the year at work and I used to look forward to the note we would put on the counter top letting our customers know that we would not be able to accommodate special orders with short deadlines. It was about the only time of the year when we felt vindicated in our refusal to accept rush orders. Usually we are known as a service that will bend over backwards if it will help our customers, and our service has a good reputation among our peers. There was something a little rewarding though about not being placed in a position of having to juggle priorities. Our workload has changed, and we no longer place on a sign on the desk, in part because we have fewer orders placed in person. But another change is in our response to our customers. If the answer has to be “no”, we then do our best to offer alternatives. They still have the need, which ultimately serves our system’s primary mission, so if we want to stay viable and pertinent, then we have to update our approach and our ability to resolve deadlines.

My prayer for the congregation?

Dear God, You are a changeling with permanent virtues. You minister to the needs of your people and craft alternatives when our choices are desperate. You set clear boundaries, and we find loopholes. You set limits, and we are thankful as long as they apply to the next person and not ourselves. You set expectations, and we find a different approach to evade your pronouncements. Let us use the same energy that we extend for equivocation and set up a balance of action and planning. Give us patience to see your answers unfold, and let us recognize that the answer may not come packaged as we imagined our needs would be met. Amen.