The sisterhood of the traveling bibles

 Good morning,

I pray the day finds you well. 

I have been gone for a few days camping with Laurie. 

I came into the "Y" this morning and opened my office door. Low and behold on the crying chair was a box of bibles!

Maybe I should back up a bit.

We remodeled our YMCA back in 2013 - 2014. When we remodeled our "Y" the staff made sure I had my own office. Ask anyone who has worked for a YMCA and they will tell you, space is a premium. Most staff are double and tripled up in one office because of space issues. I was given an individual office for two reasons:

1. Because of the people that come to talk with me and share things that are private. 
2. I tend to be gassy

I truly appreciated that the staff made a special space for me. 

My office is 8x8 with windows and an electrical panel that I am not allowed to put anything in front of. Inside my office, space is a premium. 

In the summer of 2014 we hired a new Senior Director of Healthy Living. She oversaw both the Healthy Living department and the Membership department. One of the areas that membership oversaw was the community room. 

The community room is a space where members congregate to socialize, have groups, and hold classes. There were a lot of books and stuff in the community room. 

The new Senior Director of Healthy Living decided one day that all those books should live in my office. I came in one day to boxes of books stacked in my office. Other staff saw what had happened and thought, "Well, I guess Roger's office is the place to put things."

As you could have probably guessed I was not a happy camper when this started to happen, so I acted quickly.

In the spring of 2022 I cleaned out my office.

I asked Daryl our Executive Director what he thought I should do with the stuff. Daryl, who by the way is still mad at Flo for calling him "bigfoot," said, "Put it back in the community room where it all started from."

So, I got with Sabastian and Esmeralda; we put all the books and stuff into the drawers under the counters in the community room. One of the things we put in there was a box full of Bibles. 

A few weeks goes by and I come into work to find that box full of Bibles back in my office and in the crying chair. 

Now we are all caught up!

I came into the "Y" this morning and opened my office door. Low and behold on the crying chair was a box of bibles!

I turned around and said, "Who put these bibles in my office?"

I received the preverbal, "Not me, not me." from the staff. 

I took the box of Bibles out of my office and Bluebell asked what I was going to do with them? 

I replied, "Get rid of them." 

Bluebell responded, "I will take them."

I wrote an email to the leadership team asking them to please use the recycle bin outside and not the one in my office to get rid of their stuff. 

Satisfied that I had properly scolded everyone without having to actually talk to anyone, very chaplainy of me. I left for a few minutes and when I came back Esmeralda was standing over the box that Bluebell had placed on the floor in the welcome center and looking right at me said, "What is this?"

I looked her straight in the eye and said, "Not me, not me."

We found out that Stitch was cleaning out the "Manager on Duty" office and came across the box of Bibles and not knowing what to do put them. He put them in my office. 

But just how did they get in the M.O.D. office? The mystery continues, they traveled?

We had a good laugh and Esmeralda suggested that I write a bread about The sisterhood of the traveling Bibles. I thought that was a wonderful idea and went back into my office, now I could sit down since I had room for a chair. 

Wait a minute you say. You just told me that the box of Bibles was in the crying chair in your office.

That's right, but I'm not going to sit in it. It makes me cry!

I began to write the tale when low and behold Esmeralda clamors into my office yelling, "Brad's cart, Brad's cart, had anyone seen Brad's cart?!"

I think I owe you an explanation. 

Brad is one of our volunteers. he has volunteered for us for quite a while now. Brad has some ailments and is physically challenged, so I bought him a cart a few years ago so he could transport things he was working on, in fact here is a picture of Brad's cart.

How do we know you are telling us the truth Roger? 

1. I never lie, all my stories are completely true with no exaggerations.
2. His name is on it.

We looked all over for Brad's cart and finally found it in the Teen Center. I guess we will have to write a bread about that someday!

Esmeralda was now happy, she knew where Brad's cart was. And, I was happy that I could go back to writing this bread.

The sisterhood of the traveling pants. 

A story of four sisters that promise to stay connected as they travel in different directions. 

The sisterhood of the traveling Bibles. 

A story of a box of bibles that went for a travel but stayed connected and came back. 

While things may find themselves in an "out of sight out of mind" place in our lives. I began to ponder, "How have I done the same thing with God?" How often has He been "out of sight out of mind" in my life? 

Those bibles and Brad's cart have caused me to ponder two things:

1. How have I been guilty of, "out of sight out mind with God?
2. How can I be more intentional about my walk with Christ. Keeping Him not only in my mind, but at the forefront of it?

Something to ponder.

Blessings,

Roger