Learning to be the Cal Raleigh of Wonder-Catching

Note: As I write this, I am waiting anxiously for the announcement of who will will the American League MVP award. This year the award is down to two great players: Aaron Judge of the NY Yankees and our own Mariner Catcher, Cal Raleigh. I think you know where I stand on this vote...right with so many of you! Cal Raleigh deserves this award! But as I wait, I found myself inspired by a thought: What would happen if each of us worked as hard as Cal does...not catching baseballs but catching wonder!?!

As I was writing my message for Sunday (just so you know my “sermon day” is on Wednesdays), I came up with a new word or concept: a concept I call “wonder-catching”.   The idea came to me as I was thinking of our worship themes for November and December.  Our November worship theme is “Wonder-filled” and is a take-off of the wonderful holiday movie “It’s a Wonderful Life”, and our December worship theme is called “Dream-casting with God”.  

The thought behind this concept came to me years ago as I was talking to one of my friends, Dr. Bruce Blummer, who was, at the time, a Middle school principal.  One day after church I was visiting with him and it just occurred to me just how hard it must be to keep positive as a Middle School principal, especially when you were in charge of “disciplining” students who misbehaved.  I often marveled at how positive Bruce was, and so I asked him just how he did it.  Here’s what he said:

       First, it isn’t easy doing my job.  In fact, when I first started, I was overwhelmed.  You have to deal with some kids who are going through so much!  And sometimes, when they act out, it becomes so frustrating.  And sometimes all of that can just flood you with negative emotions.  But early on I realized that if I didn’t do something soon, I wasn’t going to make it.  So, in my prayer time an idea came to me.  If I was going to do this right, I wanted to make sure I wasn’t the guy or gal trying to “catch” people at doing something wrong.  I just didn’t want to be that person. 

So what I decided to do was to do my best to catch kids doing something good!  And so, every morning I got to the school early and waited outside for them and as I entered the school, if I saw one of my “troubled” kids coming into school and I noticed that they weren’t doing anything wrong, I ran up to them and thanked them for being good kids.  I caught them being good before they even had a chance to do something wrong.  And it was remarkable that once I started catching them doing something good, they kind of kept being good! They actually believed what I was seeing!

Bruce was retraining his mind and heart to be a “wonder catcher”! 

You know what, we can too!  What would happen to our hearts and to our lives if we worked way harder at seeking out the wonder of this world than we did seeking out what’s wrong? 

When you think about it, isn’t that the intent of Thanksgiving?  Instead of focusing on all our groans and moans about this world, giving thanks is a practice that almost forces us to see the world first through the lens of wonder!

This past week I was feeling a little low about the church.  We had just had a tough meeting where things hadn’t gone so well.  We had received some tough news from the conference and the bishop concerning some property plans we had and frankly I was very disappointed about the news.  But just as the moans and groans started to enter my heart, I remembered what Bruce had shared with me.  So, I took out a blank sheet of paper and got out my brightest colored marker and simply started listing all the “wonder” that I have experienced in my ministry and especially here at Bear Creek UMC.  I started listing the time we all witnessed a deer walk across the yard of the church and we all stopped what we were doing and worship and went to the window to watch as this momma deer instructed her two fawns!  I listed the countless people in our church who do so much for Bear Creek.  I listed our wonderful staff that continue to step it up in so many new and wonder-filled ways every day.  I listed new folks in our church who are stepping into new and expanded ministries.  I listed veterans in our church’s leadership who continue to push for ministries in our church than help us achieve our God-given vision in our church. I listed folks who gave to us financially and spiritually.  I mean I went all out, and, in the end, I had more names than I had room for the page! 

And in the end, I found my upside-down heart completely turned right-side-up again!

Hey folks, if you are feeling a bit down today, why not get out a piece of paper and do what I did!  I’m telling you...it works!

May God continue to train our eyes to see the wonder in each moment, and to learn to run to it with every fiber of our being, for without this practice we have zero chance of surviving in the world we now live in.

Your pastor and friend, committed to being the Cal Raleigh of "wonder catching", Brook