It's Not What Happens

It's not what happens.  It's how you handle it. And the difference in how you handle it can make the situation go from a day breaker to a day maker.

Delayed flights, rain on days off, an unexpected bill, nasty reactions by people you were counting on - they can all end up being day breakers, but they don't have to be.

That's a life lesson that I keep having to relearn, but I saw a powerful example of it last Sunday at our Barrie campus. 

We've been a portable church for eight months now, and we pretty much have things down pat for set up and tear down, until last Sunday.  As we got ready to roll out Stairway to Heaven | Highway to Hell, almost everything that could go wrong technically did go wrong.

The schedule got messed up, so key video people didn't know they were on.  We blew lights on the set.  We blew fuses.  We failed to capture the 8:30 service on video, which means everything was riding on getting the 10 a.m. captured well.  I even forgot to take up the offering at the 10:00 a.m. until gently reminded by our host team (and it was a pretty full theater too!)  Both services started late because of technical issues, meaning the tear down time was compressed, with dozens of people lining up to watch The Dark Knight for noon sharp.  I think our guests had a great experience (few of the glitches were actually visible), but it stressed our e-teams and tech teams to the max.

Here's what I loved.  The kind of Sunday we had is classic recipe for finger pointing, frustration, complaining and grumbling.  Our volunteers did the opposite.  After the first service, our lead audio guy, Justin, simply wanted to high five all the guys who rushed in to save the day.  The tear down crew after saw the compressed time frame as a challenge, and everyone pulled together to get it done. Everyone (I mean everyone) handled themselves with poise, grace, and class.

I love these folks.

Made me think about a few things.  Gratitude for being able to be part of such a great team.  Challenge - to make sure I don't let things that happen control my reaction. And finally, anticipation.  We get to do this next week and I'm pretty sure we won't have half the issues we had last Sunday.

What tough circumstances have you faced and how has attitude made a difference?