TAKING THINGS FOR GRANTED

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The staff has spent the last two days hunkered down in my Living Room.  Staff Retreat, minus the Retreat. (saving money while sleeping in our own beds...rather genius).  When you're with seven other people in the same room sitting face-to-face for 9 hours straight, you get to know them a little better. (good or bad)

We have a good staff.  We like each other.  We respect each other.  We work as a team.  We tell each other the truth.  Sometimes we agree.  Sometimes we disagree.  Sometimes we encourage one another. Sometimes we tell each other that their idea sucks or that an area of their ministry needs an overhaul or that they are just wrong.  That includes me.  By that I mean, I tell them and they also tell me.  Sometimes it feels like they mostly tell me....but, probably not.

We're just a church staff, like any other church staff.  No big deal.  We just are.

We have some new members to our staff.  They've served at other places before serving here.  In the course of conversations, they basically told us that we're not just "a staff like every other staff".  What we have is unique.  What we have is different.  What we have is very special.  Wow, we didn't know.  We just thought we were a bunch of lunkheads that had somehow found each other and were trying our best to keep our heads above water.  Who knew what we had was special?

We were taking it for granted.  No celebration.  No wonder.  No pride (the good kind).

I wonder how many things in our lives that are extraordinary we take for granted, assuming what we have is simply everyone else's experience as well?  Maybe it's our marriage?  Possibly our kids?  Our parents?  Our living conditions?  Our job?  Our church?  Our relationship with God?  The list is endless.

Today, I am more grateful for my staff than I was yesterday.  I'm not taking them for granted.  But, sadly, it required someone to say, "You know, this isn't the way it is everywhere".  I'm grateful I heard that, but it makes me wonder how many other areas of my life are extraordinary that I take for granted.
Maybe an attitude of gratitude is called for.  Maybe it's time to take stock of what I've really got and recognize them as the blessings...wonderful blessings, they are.

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