Fingernail
And the fingernail on the ring finger has never been the same. Rather than being curved, it’s closer to the shape of a staple. Well, not that extreme, but you get the point.
Because of this, it often snags on stuff and rips a bit. No pain, just annoying.
I was telling my daughter Juliana the history of this poor fingernail.
I was a twenty-seven-year-old single, planning to go away for the weekend to lead our worship ministry leadership team’s retreat. We were going to the beach! (One of my favorite places) However, the lodging we had secured was lacking one required amenity.
Air conditioning.
It seemed almost a deal-breaker until I hatched a young-adult-genius idea. I had the perfect solution in my bedroom: a window unit air conditioner!
All I had to do was remove it, lug it to the car, find a window in the cabin, and lie under the blissfully refreshing breeze of artificial cooling.
So, step one: remove it.
Simple enough, right? Unscrew the safety brackets keeping the window closed. Unscrew the extending fins on either side from the upper window. (yes, I forgot to unplug it) Slide the window up, and…
Oh, shoot. In an instant, the heavy AC began its gravity-yanked descent toward the patio from its second-story perch.
“Thankfully,” my quick mind and cat-like reflexes jumped into instinctive action, and I grabbed the 58-pound appliance, saving it from certain doom. My efforts simultaneously sealed my fingernail’s fate between the AC and window frame.
How could I be so stupid?! I thought. At the time, I only felt my removal failure lacked sense. Life experience and its gratefully accompanied maturity gifted me with the perspective that taking the AC at all was on par with… a long list of other questionable things that young people do.
Why, oh, why am I telling you this?
You likely work with some young people who do such questionable things. If you’re like me, you forget what you (or your friends) were like back then, and you’d be prone to say something NOT designed to build each other up. You might even say something that would exasperate them and, at the very least, undermine their confidence.
What if, instead, we’d remember that we are also cut from the same dust cloth and graciously lead them toward maturity?
I’ve been quick to judge, mock, ridicule, slam, tease, or simply write off younger folks who might just be acting their age. As I look at similar things I did when I was their age, I’m overwhelmed with gratitude for the leaders around me that called me to life, that called me higher.
No, I didn’t always like it, and I didn’t always respond graciously, but they loved me “like I was and enough to not let me stay that way.” I’m humbled as I think of Eric, Deborah, Peggy, Charlene, Jim, Jeff, and many others who shaped me in that development phase.
I want us to take our roles of fathering and mothering (or peer mentoring!) the next generation of leaders seriously. Can you think of one person God has placed in your life to whom you can give confidence with your encouraging words and heart?
-Dave Helmuth
(purchase my book, "Worship Fertilizer: (the first hundred)" HERE)
Fingernail (Nº 349)
