Both my wife and I belong to service organizations, and we both frequently run into a situation with our fellow members that leave us completely puzzled.
She ran into it most recently. She met with some members to discuss an upcoming event (a coffee sunday) they would be running at their home parish, and one member kept insisting they dial back their efforts. Want to have two or more types of coffee? No, don't go through the trouble. One is enough. Some of us will do some baked goods. Oh, don't do that. It's too much of a bother. Just buy some cookies. How about this? I don't think we should. And so on. I have had many, many run ins with such people. Want to do something, literally anything? They will try and claw it back to as close to nothing as humanly possible.
Incidentally, the person who kept dragging back my wife and the other members was not the person in charge of the group. Such people never are. 'Oh no, I would never dream of being in charge myself, and you are doing such a fine job.'
I have run into this many times myself, and I simply do not understand this impulse. If you don't want to put yourself out, fine. Don't. It is a volunteer organization and no one is holding a gun to your head. But why do these people insist that no one else should put themselves out as well? They just suck the life out of every endeavor and effort, if not kill it entirely. And then, when the effort fails to flourish- because, honestly, how could it with such a low effort?- they will say that they were right not to put much effort into it at all and isn't it good that they foresaw this end and we didn't waste our time and money on it?
Whatever you do, do it with gusto. As I've told my guys: the kingdom of heaven is not for the half assed. We must be complete asses for Christ, or not at all.
1 comment:
I agree with you. Once such naysayers voice their opinion, do the thing anyway. Do it well. Perhaps such people don't want to be shown up by others giving it their best. Sounds like depression.
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