Stories of Outstanding People: Pastor Tim
November 23, 2009
I have a good friend whom I met many years ago at Starbucks. I would pass him on the way to the ladies room and I was always curious about what he was doing. He was writing in a bible with these multi-colored highlighter pens and I thought to myself, “What a cool guy. He must be a priest.”
So I stopped to talk to him. I love interesting people and I had never before heard of a clergy person using multi-colored highlighter pens on their bible. Maybe it’s a trend but I just don’t know about, but at any rate it was enough to get me to meet the fascinating and hilarious Pastor Tim.
Tim started right in telling me some stories and boy were they funny. I was laughing so hard right there in Starbucks that I thought I was going to split my side. When I met him, he had only been at his parish for a year or two he was at the beginnings of his difficult work.
Tim works in a small Lutheran church in the heart of a very difficult neighborhood in Philly. I could tell that Tim was totally dedicated to what he’s doing and yet I could also see that he was really struggling. Tim didn’t just have one problem or even two, he had multiple ones, often occurring at the same time!
One week Tim had a series of disastrous incidents one right after another – the copier broke, the heating went out and a few other things showed up. Tim had solved them one by one but when the last one showed up, he was at his wits end. Things seemed totally insurmountable.
Not knowing what else to do, Tim got down on his knees and begged for help from above. After he was finished, he got up from his prayer and took a break by retreating to the men’s room. What could go wrong there right?
Tim took his time in the ‘bathroom sanctuary’ not wanting to rush his few short moments of peace and quiet. On his way out he decided to leave it in a better state than he’d found it, so he grabbed a can of deodorizer and gave it a nice refreshing spray around the room. Nice gesture right?.
But instead of coming out like aerosol mist, the deodorizer which had obviously been around far too long, sprayed all over the walls just like gummy string cheese!
Tim took one took at the wall and knew instantly what to do. He laughed out loud and promptly walked out, leaving behind a wonderful new art piece for the parish bathroom!
Whenever I see Tim he always makes me laugh. Even though I know that it is not easy keeping his tiny parish afloat, Tim always has a funny story to tell. I keep telling him he needs to write up his stories. But since he’s so busy, I thought I’d tell one for him. He has plenty more.
And if you’re ever in Starbucks in Philly and see a guy with a colored up bible, stop and say hi, it just might be Pastor Tim – the pastor with the big heart and the amazing sense of humor.
Today use the power of humor in your own life to create a new story even in the midst of the greatest challenges.
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