The Night Shift

I am writing this in Orlando at the Fellowship of Presbyterians gathering. This is the land of entertainment. Here is the Magic Kingdom, where, so the commercials would have you believe, every child’s dream can come true. This is where Epcot, Universal Studios, Sea World, Ripley’s, and a host of other mega-theme parks are located. This is the land of lots of golf and high dollar resorts. It is the place where you can sit by the pool in January, where it’s sunny all the time. This morning I got up earlier than usual. I looked out the window to see the first elements of light in the eastern horizon. Somewhere out over the Atlantic the sun was already up.

At the bus stop outside our hotel, Ken Lane and I did not stay in one of the golfing resorts, I saw a group of people waiting for the bus. I thought to myself, “This isn’t a residential neighborhood. Why are there so many people standing there so early?” Then it dawned on me. This is the night shift going home. With many of the major theme parks to close, these were the magicians that put the magic back in the Magic Kingdom.

It is amazing what we take for granted. After the last roller coaster goes down the last hill, after Tinkerbell has flown down from Cinderella’s Castle, after Shamu has gone to bed, after. . ., after. . ., after. . . That is when battalions of unseen and under appreciated workers clock in and rebuild the magic for the next day. They clean the hundreds of restrooms, empty thousands of trash cans, pick up millions of dropped napkins and cups, and – basically – put Humpty Dumpty back on the wall so he can fall again the next day for our amusement.

We show up to experience the magic and ride the rides, but we never think about the thousands of workers and effort that goes in to making our “perfect day.”

On a more spiritual note, “Where is God in our comfort?” We alternate between questioning and accusing when disaster strikes. We switch between, “Where was God when . . .?” and “God brought this upon us because . . .!” All the while we fail to ask where God is in our times of comfort.

I think I may have an answer. I won’t be bold enough to claim it is THE answer, but I do like it. Maybe, just maybe, God spends a lot of time working just like the night shift at the Magic Kingdom. Face it, can we ever really know how much work God does on something before we ever show up? How much of the road has he smoothed over or swept up long before we have seen it, all the time preparing the way for. . .yes, YOU!

How amazing is that? The story of Joseph really reaches one of its climaxes in Genesis 50:20 when Joseph says to his brothers who had hated him and sold him into slavery years before, As for you, you meant it for evil against me; but God meant it for good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save the lives of many people. Read that verse again – slowly. God had been at work for years, slowly pushing here, sometimes prodding there, all to set up this day and to show forth his grace and mercy in delivering his people. Much of the time behind the scenes. Maybe even on the night shift.

Pastor Craig