Happy Birthday to you!

We have this Wednesday night Middle School ministry at our church; we call it “FRED”. I know that FRED is “in transition” and I thought they were looking for speakers, so I volunteered. They told me that they already had all their bases covered. Imagine that, they were doing just fine without me! “Oh well”, I thought, “I’ve got plenty of other projects to work on”. A couple of days later I got a call from the middle school guy saying he made a mistake in his scheduling. He has an opening he wants me to fill. He says I need to talk about leadership.
I started thinking of what I could say to a group of 60 to 70 middle schoolers about leadership. I need examples. I need a story. And then I thought about my friend Terri. Terri goes to my church and that’s were we met, but not long ago she took over as my boss’s administrative assistant and receptionist in our office. And that’s where my story begins. You see, my boss, Mike, keeps track of everybody’s birthday in the office. He gets a card for everybody to sign and brings in a cake on your birthday. And near the end of the day we all get together in the break room and have cake. But we never sing the Happy Birthday Song. Some people have started singing but were quickly hushed. Others have threatened to sing but were immediately counter-threatened. Usually someone will jokingly announce, “last one in the room has to sing”, and the last person in the room will turn around as if to leave and forfeit free cake rather than sing. All sorts of good-natured work place jocularity, but no singing. And that’s okay, but Terri is new. And she’s a leader.
Well, last Wednesday was Mike’s birthday and we got him a card and a cake, and at three o’clock we assembled in the break room. Mike was the last one in, because he is the boss and has important things to do all day. As soon as he entered the room, Terri started singing the Happy Birthday Song, loud! She seemed completely oblivious to our consternation. Most of us eventually found our voices and joined in with all the enthusiasm we could muster at such short notice. And then we ate cake and resumed our good-natured work place jocularity.
And maybe that’s not as big a deal as I have made of it. But I thank God for Terri. One day, not long after she came to work at our office she and I were at the same table in one of those “Character-of-the-Month presentations. It was kind of like a Sunday School lesson, only without mentioning Jesus or referring to the Bible. And in our discussion time Terri whipped out her notes from a recent sermon at our church and, with her characteristic passion, exclaimed that our preacher made a very similar point the day before in church, and that it was very practical and meaningful to her. And then she turned to me for confirmation and comment. I agreed and expounded, but in a much less passionate tone.
Since then she has quite naturally drawn me into the conversation as she frequently tells our office-mates about some exciting truth she learned or a particularly meaningful moment of worship she experienced while at our church. And I suppose that everybody knows that I go to church, and that I try to present a reasonable level of sanctification at work. But the truth is that I have deliberately kept a low profile as a Christ-follower at work. But Terri is new, and she doesn’t know that I don’t actually sing the Happy Birthday Song. I just eat the cake.
I’ve got a birthday coming up soon. Let’s see what happens!
DonaldD