Course Correction

I have the bad habit of being late to places.

Sometimes this is preventable, sometimes it's not. For instance, perhaps I should start looking for my wallet and keys before I have to leave. Or maybe pack up all of my things 20 minutes beforehand, as opposed to 5. Or, in my most recent case, simply know when I have to be places. In September, I got 'hired' at my church as an intern, and now I'm tasked with a variety of activities. Part of my responsibilities include showing up to meetings, and I have a lot of meetings to attend. The two main meetings that consistently remain the same time are the Intern meeting at 1:30, and the Staff meeting at "6:30", both on Friday. I thought I did a pretty good job at showing up to both of these meetings on time. However, for the past few weeks, I felt like the staff meetings had been starting early, because they were always in session when I got there. Yesterday, I asked my youth pastor, Chris, why they had been starting early every week.

"Uh, no. We always start on time. You're always thirty minutes late." Notice how the above "6:30" is in quotes? This is because the meeting actually started at 6.

I felt pretty bad about this to say the least. It really, really bothered me that I didn't know when the meetings were, even though I had been to a couple before they started. What this taught me is that I am not very good with time management, or communicating with people. As soon as I got home, I shot Chris a text, copiously apologizing for being ignorant about the meeting times. He told me that he was going to mention something later, but I beat him to it. He thanked me for realizing my shortcomings and apologizing. All of this made me ask myself: Where else in my life am I going wrong without realizing it?

Someone (don't remember who) once said "Ignorance does not exclude you from the law." I learned this the hard way. I showed up for the last fifteen minutes of every meeting and didn't realize that I might be showing up late. Surprisingly, no one called me out on it for three weeks. Protip: let someone know they're screwing up before they find out themselves.

"Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted."
Galatians 6:1

If you see someone straying from their path, point it out to them. I had no idea that I was in the wrong until I asked about it. If you think about your life, you're probably not going to recognize unintentional, recurring mistakes that you might be making. Only when someone points it out to you does it become obvious. In Christian circles, this is often called "Accountability partners". But unless we're dealing with a sin issue in our lives, we shouldn't have to ask people to be accountable to one another. It should just happen naturally, but in a way that is loving. Be too hard on someone, and they'll probably stop trying altogether. Be too soft, and they probably won't take the message seriously. Strengthen one another in shortcomings.

"If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them."
James 4:17