Once again a blog deadline is weighing heavily. Yes, I signed up for a blog post but the task always leaves me a bit anxious. What to write? What is blog-worthy? How can I express my thoughts on so many newsworthy topics? Today I chose not one topic but a variety of personal random pressing thoughts, pressing at least for me.
- In the retail market the consumer is looking for the best deal on a product or service. The consumer haggles and deals until the resolution seems satisfactory for the consumer. The saying “the customer is always right” is on our lips, ready to be spoken when resolutions are not to our liking. I’m not so sure that adage is always correct, but it seems more of an unwillingness to compromise. When are our confrontations considered persistence and when might the reality be bullying? How do we resolve conflict? Do we walk away from negotiation feeling empowered by the resolution or satisfied that we got what we wanted? What do you think: persistence or bullying?
- I have heard cell phone conversations end with “love ya” and the reply is “love ya too.” When people sign off a conversation with these words it sounds to me to be quite shallow. My parents never ended a land line phone conversation this way. Is it truly a meaningful way to end a cell phone conversation or is it just lip service that has come about by the onset of increased cell phone usage?
- When congregations deny or lessen their mission support through synods and the ELCA, do they cut their other mission projects by the same percentage? Why do we feel called to punish an organization that does so much for the church and the world? If these same congregations are again seeing good giving practices, do they increase or make up that support? It is my hope, and I daresay the hope of the church, that all will seriously evaluate their stewardship practices.
- Lastly I hope that each of you reading this blog belong to an organization that affirms your faith, challenges you every day and allows you to find and speak your voice. I have found such in my home synod and in Women of the ELCA. If you have not, please let me know and I’ll tell you my stories to encourage your journey forward to that goal. Can you tell me you’ve found such an organization?
Syd Brinkman is finishing her second term on the churchwide executive board. She lives in Allison, Iowa.
+++++
Photo by Chicago Art Department. Used with permission.