The Cush Factor

While there’s a part of me that’s pretty sure ministry will win out in this silly adventure, I still hold on to hope for Barnes and Noble. (Let’s examine the psychology behind that another day.) But after working a full day earlier this week with my feet killing me as well as trying to schedule some other meetings around a rather inflexible schedule that only comes out a few weeks ahead of time, I realized there are a lot of ways ministry obviously wins. Lumping a bunch of these reflections together, I will call this the “Cush” factor.

Cush factor one: time flexibility. While there are certain times of complete inflexibility—say, Sunday mornings—for the most part, a minister has a lot of flexibility. Ministers’ prayer meeting the 17th of December? All the ministers can be there—the BN bookseller cannot. The schedule’s already been set—there’s no leaving campus for lunch let alone an hour lunch prayer meeting, let alone the ½ hour drive in addition to that.

Cush factor two: happy feet. Other than maybe a day when I thought I wouldn’t be walking much so I wore some serious heels but ended up doing hospital visits and maybe grocery shopping on the way home from work, I don’t ever remember having sore feet at the end of the day. Eight hours standing at cash register in uncomfortable shoes (who even things about the comfort level of your shoes?) and the cush factor struck me as five stars for ministry, never mind all the scheduling flexibility.

Cush factor three: activity flexibility. In other words, a minister can do ministry things, but when I needed to, I could also spend a bit of time pricing tires for my car or checking my personal email (and responding now and then). I heard of a minister who would go get his haircut on “church” time—a regular working day as opposed to a day off. I find that excessive, but still—most ministers work plenty of hours. In fact, most salaried people can do these things as well. Hourly at BN? Nope—no email checking, no phone calls other than answering customer questions, no quick running an errand on your short lunch break. When you’re on, you’re on.

So overall ministry gets four stars (there is still a good chunk of the congregation that thinks they own you since they pay you, so let’s not go overboard here) based on the flexibility/cush factor. And for the most part, I was planning on giving BN a big fat zero. However, it’s Thanksgiving, and I’m sitting here watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade with not one possible chance that I will get called because someone died (yes, on Thanksgiving) or spend the morning on the phone with a stranger telling me his life’s story who—as it turned out an hour and a half later—thought he’d called the pastor of the First Pres in a different town. I am free this day—REALLY free. And that counts for a star—because the call could come any minute to any minister out there—but not to a bookseller whose bookstore is closed for Thanksgiving. And THAT is something to be thankful for.

We have oodles of other things to be thankful for this day as I’m sure you do as well. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!