Madness

As madness grips our lands

As bullets fly and bombs explode

As drugs take life upon life

As our leaders major in minors

As hedonism reigns extreme

As material consumption becomes an orgy

As the church rides the beast.

Who will pray and intercede?

Who will carry the Cross?

Who will speak “peace” to a world gone mad?

Will I? Will you? Will we?

Reflections on a Career – 5

People; nice people, mean people, selfish people, insecure people, giving people…and then the occasional “different” person. I try to give the “different” folks the benefit of the doubt, sometimes that works and sometimes it doesn’t. After all, I’m sure there are those who have looked at me as a bit “different” – an advantage I have (not of my own devices) over some other “different” folks is that I can generally provide a good return on investment for my employers and clients, it’s amazing what people will tolerate when you are creating cash flow for them. I write not of my own devices because it is all by the grace of God, I should be the posterchild for the idea that God looks after the simpleminded.

This evening I was reminded of Bessie. Bessie worked for me at a few different properties and my could she rent apartments. I think that if I collected a few dozen appliance boxes and stacked them one on top of another that she could rent those for a premium. Bessie and I were at some tough properties, properties in crime-infested areas; one was so tough we had armed security in the daytime. She was always pretty upbeat, except when she was downbeat, and when she was on a downer she could really draw it out and make everyone around her pay with her petulance, but she was normally chipper.

Bessie was one of the best conversationalists I’ve ever known, she would say something and listen, say something and listen – the only thing is that she was saying something to herself and then listening to herself and then responding to herself. As I said, folks will put up with “different” if the person who is different is making money for them, and as I also said Bessie could rent apartments – so what is the problem with someone talking to herself if she is also renting apartments? I didn’t see a problem. Her former regional manager didn’t see a problem; Bessie talked, she rented apartments, and we were all fairly happy.

The fact that Bessie talked to herself actually saved me from serious embarrassment one day. I stopped by the property she was working at, went into the rental office and didn’t see anyone around. No one came out from the back office to greet me. There was silence. Then, coming from the bathroom down the hall between the front office, where Bessie worked, and the back office where the manager worked, I heard a conversation going on, a discussion. I thought, “What are Bessie and Velda doing in the bathroom together? What are they talking about?”

I decided the best thing for me to do was to take a seat in the front office and wait for Bessie and Velda to come out in the hallway. I waited…the conversation continued. I waited some more…the conversation continued.

Then the toilet flushes, the faucet runs, and out into the hallway steps Bessie. She didn’t even have to open the bathroom door to get out because the door was wide open.

“Bessie,” I said in wonderment, “did you have the bathroom door open?”

“Yes I did Bob.”

“Why in the world would you do that Bessie?”

“Well, I had an appointment coming in to meet me about an apartment and I left the door open so I could hear them when they came in.”

“Did it occur to you to put the clock-sign on the door saying that you’d be back to open up in ten minutes?”

“No, I didn’t think about that. But it was okay because since the bathroom door was open I could hear them and tell them that I’d be out of the bathroom in a few minutes.”

All I could do was to be thankful that I hadn’t walked down the hall looking for people for I surely would have seen Bessie on the porcelain throne engaged in vigorous debate with herself. So you see, the fact that Bessie talked to herself saved the day for me.

Reflections on a Career - 4

People - All Kinds

The greatest thing about my career, indeed the greatest thing about the life God has given me, is the people I’ve met and the people I’ve known. I have been blessed in that I’ve known dirt-poor people and exceptionally wealthy people; I’ve known folks functionally illiterate and folks at the top of universities; I’ve known janitors and I’ve known chairmen and CEOs leading international companies. I’ve also known folks from just about every race and from many ethnic groups, I’ve been in many of their homes, I’ve eaten with them or had a cup of coffee with them, laughed with them and prayed with them. I was blessed to live in an African - American neighborhood and I was blessed to live in three Latino neighborhoods; I am a better man for it.

When I hear people talking about other classes of people, or about races or ethnic groups, in less than flattering ways, I often ask if they know any of those folks, whether they’ve been in their homes, eaten with them, or had them in their homes. Chances are the answer is “no”. It is disturbing to me that even if the answer is “no” that the people doing the criticizing don’t see the foolishness of acting like they know something they don’t; they don’t see the prejudice and bias - and if they are professing Christians it pains me that they don’t see how uncharitable their speech and thinking are.

One of the neat things about my career in property management is that on the same day I can be meeting with executives and people of wealth in a boardroom at 10:00 AM, and then at 1:00 PM I may be talking to a laborer who dropped out of school when he was in the tenth grade discussing how to deal with a sewer backup. I’ve learned not to judge the inside of an apartment by the outside of the building, just because the landlord doesn’t care about cleanliness doesn’t mean the folks in the apartments don’t - I’ve been in many an inner-city apartment that was clean and inviting and in which the folks were kind and hospitable - thankful for what they had...as opposed to many of the attitudes I’ve experienced in “upscale communities”. Some of the upscale places I’ve managed have had some of the most ungrateful and mean people living in them; you can have a big bank account but a little mind and heart; or a little bank account (or maybe no bank account) and have a insightful mind and a welcoming heart.

Right now I have people working from me from I don’t know how many ethnic groups and backgrounds and even nations; I try to learn from them all and I truly enjoy them all. Sometimes I look into the faces of my African - American staff members who are my age and older and I think about what they’ve been through; the younger African - Americans often don’t get it, they don’t understand. Then I talk to my Latino team members, from various countries and areas of the US, and do you know what I want them to know above everything else? That I am on their side, that I want the best for them, that they can trust me, that I care about them.

I live on this social, economic, educational, racial, and ethnic continuum. I once commented to my physician that seminary didn’t teach me to live on the life and death continuum, as a pastor the people I cared for were getting sick, dying, and giving birth - all at the same time. My doctor said that med school didn’t teach him how to do that either. I live on the sickness, life and death continuum on my job too; both with my residents and with my team members - especially with my team members with whom I have continual contact. I may have more significant contact with people in business that I did as a pastor, I may have more significant time with people than I did as a pastor; I may have more opportunities to work with people in the nitty gritty dynamics of life than I did as a pastor, and to pray with them and counsel them. I guess these things are hard to discern but it is nice not to be encumbered by religious trappings and with people thinking that they are supposed to act a certain way because they are in religious setting.

But still it seems as if I never have enough time to be with people to help them, and this is similar to when I’ve pastored.

Yes, people have been the greatest gift. What richness God has placed in humanity, what treasures surround us. Of course we are fallen, of course we aren’t perfect, of course there are evil people and people doing evil things - don’t kid yourself, there are evil people. But in the midst of the insanity and evil there is much treasure, if only we will take the time to listen, to seek to understand, to get to know each other.