Lent day 39 - personality

Yesterday I spent all day helping to organise a ladies day conference which is happening today.  Eight hours of setting out tables and printing off bits and pieces and putting up wall displays and the like.  It is amazing how much time and effort it takes to set up a room for 120 people, sort out the signs for the toilets, the bookstalls, the table decorations for lunch, the volunteer rota so everyone knows what they are supposed to be doing on the day - the name badges, the money . the thank you gifts etc etc etc.   You think you are just going to invite someone to come and speak to a bunch of women and have lunch together and then you start to think about the details and the thing takes on a life all of its own!

Yesterday I realised that my personality is very different from that of most of my team mates.  I seem to be surrounded by people who are a bit OCD ( their words not mine).  Detail people. People who deeply care about the colour of the table cloths and whether the right font is being used on the menu cards.  I am so not like that.   The thing is, I think that quite alot of the attention to detail is absolutely unnecessary and a bit ridiculous.    But of course I have to realise that the detail people probably think my ' that will do' manner is exceedingly annoying and slapdash. 

Which of us is right?


Is there a right?  Does it really matter?

Why am I so different from my team mates?

What does Jesus think?  Is He a perfectionist or a 'just get the job done' guy?

I suppose the world probably needs both sort of people in order to function.  If everyone on the planet was a perfectionist and a detail person then it would take a very long time to get anything done.  If everyone was like me then lots of things would get done in pretty good time but probably wouldnt be done terribly well and might have to be done again later.   It's funny that God didnt seem to make everyone ' middle of the road' people.  We dont all have middle of the road tempers and middle sized appetites and exactly average levels of ambition.  We seem to be created to be all or nothing. One thing or the other.  Introvert or extrovert.  Tidy or messy. Organised or chaotic.  Confident or timid.  The potential for conflict is huge but maybe that is why God designed us all to be so different from each other .  Because where conflict is a possibility the need for grace is paramount.

I needed grace yesterday when I was watching people fiddling over tiny details of things I considered to be spectacularly unimportant.   Im sure they needed grace for me too :)   At the end of the day the conference was set up to a very high standard.  Higher than needed ( from my point of view)  Not as perfect as it could have been ( from theirs)  What stopped us all coming to blows and losing the plot despite everyone being very tired by the end of the day was fact that we knew we were there to bless the people who are coming to the event today.  We all had the same end goal.  And we all pulled together using our various gifts talents and personalities to get there.    I doubt I will ever be a perfectionist, but working alongside a few perfectionists makes me realise that I could improve a bit in my attention to detail.  Taking care of the small stuff shows people you are trustworthy to take care of the big stuff.

Maybe tomorrows blog will be about how todays conference went and what God did.  I do hope He uses all the thoughtful gestures and creative ideas which have gone into the day to bless people and make them feel loved.

Because at the end of the day, that's what it's all about isnt it? :)