Wise

On Wednesday evening, I met with a group of five young adult leaders and two “wise elders” to finish planning MEGA (Make Everyday a Great Adventure), the June 18-20 weekend that our Ontario Seventy will get to spend with young adults and vice-versa. Here, “elder” is used in its age related sense and not to convey priesthood. (Thanks to our dear Marion, I now know the rule for not using an apostrophe to convey possession by a pronoun, and once again, one of my elders has taught me something of value!)

In this case at least, the wise elder members of the team really were wise because they were smart enough to let the younger leaders lead. Each elder member of the team is a capable and experienced leader in his own right who could have taken the reins and led the process of mapping out this weekend event. Had they done so, we would have had a plan, and it would have been fine. But the plan would have been developed from an older point of view, and might have appealed more to a different generation than we would like to reach for this event. I can imagine the younger members of the team going silent; not really excited by the plan but not wanting to hurt the feelings of their respected elders. The plan would not have been as good.

As a result, the plan has lots of time to go and do fun things together, not just sit and talk. We will create new memories of this valued time spent together, not just share about good times from the past. We will play softball and ping-pong together, have an out-door bar-b-que, and go to a Blue Jays game. We will invite the neighbourhood to come for church and stay for lunch. Is the church too small to hold the hoped-for crowd? No problem; we’ll have an out-door service in the back yard. And we will also have time to talk and share stories together. Great! Its going to be a MEGA weekend!

MEGA has a lot to offer young adults, because young adults took the lead in planning it. In part, that is so because wise elders were smart enough to be quiet and let young leaders lead. I am impressed by their willingness to do so.

So here’s to all the wise elders in our community. Thanks for being so wise!

Posted by Carman