↩️ TREE 228: I was wrong about showing up

One.

If Donald Duck doesn’t need trousers, I don’t need trousers, thought Annabel immediately before she didn’t hop over a stinging nettle.

Two.

A million years ago¹ when I was a youth pastor in Tucson, Arizona, one of the kids in my youth group invited me to an early morning youth pastors’ breakfast at his Christian high school. Obviously, I said I would go.

I am not a morning person. The high school was on the other side of the city from my apartment. In the shower the morning of the breakfast, I flaked out. I decided I was too tired and I couldn’t be bothered. No big deal.

Turns out, it was a big deal. The guy who invited me was hurt. I made him look like a chump. I made me look like a lowdown, no good, selfish jerk. Because that’s what I was.

When I realised what I had done and the effect it had, I apologised like Teresa taught us to last week. But the damage could not be all the way undone for at least a couple years.

If you say you’ll do a thing, do the thing, even if it’s more costly than you thought it would be. I learned that lesson so deeply that I never forgot until I did almost the same thing to a graphic design client about seven years later. After I lost the client, the lesson finally stuck.

Three.

Maybe now baby, I’ll do what I should have did.

Looking back on my shameful behaviour, it’s obvious how wrong I was. There was no mitigating subtlety or nuance. I was a nob. But until I saw it, I didn’t see it.

When you discover you are badly, stupidly wrong, remember to still be kind and forgiving towards yourself. You can only change once you see.

Grow slowly
Jeff

1. 27ish years ago