*$%#* phone
I have a love-hate relationship with my office phone. That’s not true. I hate it. Somebody somewhere has flipped a switch, and I’m getting more calls than ever. It’s driving me crazy. If I was smarter, I would have figured out what to do about it by now. People call who want to rent the church, present their ministry to the congregation, run a seminar. They need money because they’re in a tight spot, or they just want an appointment to talk. They want someone to conduct their wedding ceremony, or they want to see how something works. Most of them are complete strangers to me. Some of the phone calls are easy to deal with; some are important; most take time. (All of them used to take time, but I sometimes decide to ignore those along the lines of “God loves you and I have a wonderful plan for your life”). And don’t get me started on the phone stalkers, who call back every five minutes just in case. Sometime soon I’m going to figure out what to do about this problem. I think part of the solution will be better screening, so I deal with more of the people-related calls and less of the administrative ones. Let’s just hope I haven’t ripped the phone from the wall and thrown it out the window by then.