Wise Men

This time of year is a peculiar one.  There is an air of relaxation, informality.  Others in the parish office are on vacation.  Kids message me from beaches, camps, basements, and living rooms sharing their excitement or boredom. 

 

I find myself already in the very deep planning for the coming year.  The calendar is set.  Topics are chosen.  Action plans discussed and decided.  Research and background reading begins for those topics I'm not quite comfortable with yet.  Paperwork, photocopying, stapling, sorting, stopping for the bandage for yet another paper cut.  Calling to make reservations for picnic shelters, putt putt golf, and retreat centers.  Updating websites, creating new blogs,  and adding to email lists.

 

While hectic, slightly overwhelming, this time is a mixture of the familiar, the new, and even a bit magical.  The new ideas float around all the leadership.  The excitement of new freshmen joining the group buzzes through the youth.  The reality of the chaos of the year has not yet caused me to push aside the well thought out plans and lofty goals.

 

This year we are trying some new things.  Our Sunday Youth Groups are being based on the Lectionary readings.  This means our topics derive from what that Sunday's Mass readings contain.  I've gone through September so far in detail and found plenty to work with so I have great hopes for this.

 

Our Wednesday night Bible studies will go off of other books in the Bible as they used to be on the coming Sunday's Gospel reading.  Our first book to tackle will be the highlights of 1 John.  A personal favorite and no one in our leadership had any other preferences. 

 

The fall retreat is quite early which means I only have two weeks of 'normal' youth group before we go.  That will be a challenge, administratively, but I think there's great advantage to it.

 

We are moving some things to the web to help (hopefully) reduce planning meetings.  I set up blogs to help plan our Youth Groups and Bible studies.  Here's hoping that it works.  The leaders need to form the habit of checking the blogs, but it is the price to pay for shorter leadership meeting.

 

With all the work, all the aspirations for the year, I oddly find myself thinking of the three wise men or kings.  Yes, they shouldn't be showing up until January, but the new year makes me think of them.  So little is known, thus leaving my imagination to fill in the rather gaping holes in their stories. 

 

I would like to think that they did not really know what they were doing when they followed that star.  Yes, they knew how to read the stars; knew it was unusual; divined that a king was come.  But I don't think they knew to expect a king in a manger with a mother no older than the girls I work with here.  Yes, they knew how to survive the journey.  But I don't think they expected the company.  After all, would not a king or a great wise man wish to make as grand an impression as possible? Why then would he choose to travel with two others that could diminish his grandeur?  Yes, they brought gifts fit for a king.  But I don't think they knew how fitting they were for the small babe in swaddling clothes.

 

These men, with aspirations, hopes, and an idea where they were going found themselves lost.  Their plans failed.  They were surprised by companions, the babe, the angel.  They returned a different way, changed.

 

Each year, I start with my plan.  I know who is on leadership, I know what to expect.  Then come the freshmen, then comes the new volunteer forms.  Then come the crises, the normal ups and downs.  Then come the moments of grace and devastation the teens experience.  The plan changes.  The leadership team changes.  I drop my expectations.

 

Each year I turn that page of the calendar from May to June and with it comes the realization that I, too, have changed.  And it is as it should be.