Throughout much of my adult life, I prided myself on not being a collector of stuff. During my move to Guilford I was duly humbled to discover that this self-appraisal was askew. Indeed, I had accumulated multiple lifetimes of stuff! The most difficult stuff to manage has been my word collections. Ministers are always collecting words. So as not to miss great words that might come along, we carry small pads that we pull out in the middle of someone’s talking and scribble down notes and quotes. We don’t really have a system for filing these notes – they float around in our briefcases, jacket pockets, cars, pocketbooks. Some of them never leave the notepad itself; eventually the pad gets filled up and put somewhere “for the time being” (which is where it stays for a long time being).
Beyond notes and quotes, sometimes we come upon a special pile of words; that is, a little story, a poem, a parable. To add these to our collection, a copy machine is needed – an extra step that reduces the chances of the story making it into our collection, but if it does get copied, its fate is markedly better than the words on our pads. After xeroxing, it will not live at large, but instead be placed in a “file pile” in our office or study. This does not mean it ever gets filed, but at least it’s not destined to hang out in our coat pocket with movie ticket stubs.
Another common source for clergy word collecting (which by now you can tell is not organized enough to actually enjoy the title “a collection”) is to ask someone to email us words that s/he said at a gathering of some sort: ‘Dear __, I loved what you said at … and was wondering if you could send it along. No rush.’ They do send them and the email, with all its other boring or juicy news, gets printed, put in the pile and hopefully filed.
The idea of course is that we will use these words in a sermon. But for all this word-collecting, sermon-aiding effort, my observation after many years is that they almost never get put to use. The filing systems (or lack thereof) may be to blame. We’re always looking for better ways (any way!) to keep track of all these words. For efficient retrieval later, do you file them by their source, topic, genre? In my case, most of them land in a file called “INSPIRED” – a heap of notes, quotes, stories, poems and emails that bear no real relation to one another.
I did open one of these files recently, looking for a gorgeous piece written by a Boston minister in the 19th century. I couldn’t find it and that really irks me because I had it for many years and I wanted to have it forever. But while searching, I did find a beautiful Easter season benediction, embedded in a copy of a 2004 email. My colleague wrote, “Here’s the benediction you asked for; it’s attributed to Fra (somebody) maybe Giovani.” Clearly his system is as bad as mine. This is it:
There is nothing I can give you which you have not, but there is much, that while I cannot give, you can take. No heaven can come to us unless our hearts find rest in it today. Take heaven.
No peace lies in the future which is not hidden in the present instant. Take peace.
The gloom of the world is but a shadow. Behind it, yet within our reach, is joy. Take joy.
And so in this Easter season I greet you with the prayer that, for you, the day breaks and the shadows flee away, now and forever. Amen.
After reading this, I was grateful for all my haphazard word collecting. For all its shortcomings, it is, I see, a long record of people who spoke to my soul. And I wonder, who has spoken to yours and what did they say?
Resurrection blessings, Susan
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