Last week, I came into the office. This is not unlike many other weeks. I come to the office often. In fact, nearly every week. Of course, most weeks, nothing of note happens during the simple act of coming to the office. As such, it is not blog worthy. But last week was different. I came in and noticed something different. It seemed the church Administrative Assistant’s name had suddenly changed. In the past, we called her Joyce. But suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, her name was Somebody Should’a. She made a nametag and everything. Even the name on her office door no longer read Joyce. It, too, read Somebody Should’a.
Who is this Somebody Should’a? It took me a minute. She is known for joking and carrying on, so I looked closely into her eyes, searching for a glimpse of confirmation that indeed there was an elaborate joke afoot. But, in Joyce’s manner, she had made an excellent and somewhat poignant statement. It seems as though Joyce had been hearing too many people say, “Somebody really should have done so and so.” She would also hear people say, “They should have ______.” They Should’a, by the way, was another nametag. She had a whole sheet! There were a number of names: They Should’a, Somebody Should’a, and Somebody Could’a. It was funny. I laughed. Then I asked her to make me some, and I wore one.
In one simple joke, she made an excellent statement. We are bad to carry on in such a way in the church. We are very bad to say, “They could have.” Point the finger over at “they,” where ever they are, and say they needed to step up. It usually goes on with an assertion that something bad would not have happened if they had done whatever Somebody Could’a done. Poor ole Somebody Could’a, always dropping the ball.
This might work in politics and corporate structures, but in the church, we must be careful. Christ did not seem to call His followers to sit and wait on someone else to step up. He DID seem to call His followers to wait, but the emphasis on waiting was more attuned towards His people waiting on Him. After that, there was more of a “you go, and you do.” Get together, make a plan, and GO and DO. There is no “they should.” It is simply, “we should.”
We must be careful in the church to not let ourselves start waiting on them. Yes, we should always wait on Him, but never them. WE could, and WE should. So, if Joyce is now Somebody Should’a, my new name is They Could’a. Because both of us put together are we, and we can.
We can, with a plan and some motivation and direction, do nearly anything we decide. However, there is a danger if we all do whatever comes to our minds. Six minds will go in six directions when there is no central plan to focus those six minds in a single direction. But when six people are moving in one direction, we develop a tremendous momentum. So, we… Do we get together and go, or wait?
I hope that we all want to go. I also hope that we can all get together and pointed in the correct direction. While that direction might not be entirely clear, I can safely say that whichever way it is, it will be where God either is or says go.
