OUT TO PASTOR: Ready or not, here I quit

I do not quit easily. When I start a project, I like to work until it’s finished. I hate to quit before something is completed.

One thing I have learned through the years is not to start something unless I have the time and resources to finish it. How many projects I started in the past and somehow ran out of steam or resources and never got to finish it.

My problem is I have difficulty planning, scheduling and balancing certain projects. I often take on more than I could possibly do.

Such is not the case with the Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage. Whatever she takes on and how much she takes on can always be finished on time. How she does it is beyond my understanding.

The only project I can finish on time is eating. I have no problem finishing this project every day.

The thing that bothers me is that many times I take on several projects and get them confused. I see a project I want to do and I jump at it. It doesn’t matter if I have half a dozen other projects on the table, if I like it, I want to do it.

One time I thought I would partner with the Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage for several projects. As I looked at her project list, they all had something to do with crafts. I may be a lot of things, but I certainly am not crafty.

I can go into her craft room, look at all of her tools, and not know what in the world they are or what they are for. I’m not a tool kind of a person like my wife is.

Last summer, for example, we had the air conditioner guy come to fix our air conditioner. He looked at it and said he knew exactly what was wrong, but he didn’t have the right tool to fix it and so he had to go back to his office and get it.

“What tool,” my wife said to him, “do you need to fix it?”

He looked at her, laughed, and said, “Ma’am, I’m sure you don't have anything near the kind of tool that I will need.”

“Tell me what it is?”

He looked at her, smiled, and then describe the tool that he needed to fix the AC problem.

“Oh,” my wife said as she made her way back to the garage. “I think I have that tool in my garage.”

He laughed until she came back from the garage with the exact tool he needed to fix the problem. He just stared at her and didn’t know what to say.

If she doesn’t have the tool, there is no problem and nothing to fix.

It’s one thing to have a project, but it’s another thing to have the tools to finish the project on time.

There is one project that I have been working on for years. Maybe it’s about time I quit that project.

The project is, to understand how my wife manages to do all of those things?

I could go and ask her but you know what that would mean. I wouldn’t understand anything she was saying.

Where she got all that skill to work with all the tools that she has is far beyond me.

I must say she has saved me a lot of money through the years. If I had something sound wrong with my vehicle, she would immediately go out, lift the hood, and in a few moments determine what the problem was and then commence to fix it.

One time the back bumper of my truck broke and I didn’t quite know how to fix it. I was planning to take it to the garage and get them to fix it when my wife came out and asked what was wrong.

I told her about my rear bumper and she went to look at it.

I had one of those “aha” moments where I thought here was a project she couldn’t fix. It needed a professional.

In a few minutes, she went into the house and I thought she had given up. I didn’t blame her because I didn’t quite know how to fix it myself.

Then she came back outside with one of those large universal paper clips. When I saw her with it I started to laugh. She just looked at me, grinned and went over to the rear bumper and in a few moments, she had it fixed.

That was four years ago and it’s still fixed.

So, I have come to that point in my life where I am ready to quit. Ready to quit trying to figure out how she knows so much of everything associated with tools.

I am ready to quit trying to understand the other side of our marriage.

Any man that thinks he understands a woman has never yet been married.

There are so many mysteries in life and I have come to the point where I have quit trying to figure out most of those mysteries.

A verse of Scripture came to my mind, “Can two walk together, except they be agreed?” (Amos 3:3).

Sometimes that agreement is simply a mutual understanding of the differences between each other. The secret to this is not to quit but to keep moving forward.

Dr. James L. Snyder is pastor of the Family of God Fellowship, Ocala, FL 34472, where he lives with his wife. Call him at 352-216-3025 or e-mail jamessnyder2@att.net. The church web site is www.whatafellowship.com.