On the care of Lilies
a lily from my garden
The first half of my career I was the executive director of a non-profit for nearly twenty years. During the nineteenth year I considered leaving for a position at a Nashville hospital but stayed where I was. A summer later as I had been thinking of starting a private practice, there was a coup on the board of directors. One member had made it clear to me ten years before he was not in agreement with me working with ‘those people’, particularly people with AIDS (he even was a doctor). He recruited a few others on the board to join him and they made my last few months miserable.
Having had personal experience concerning gays (family members and such) this leader of the coup was also against non-Nazarene people on the board. Because more than half the monies supporting the agency was from other denominational pockets I felt their representation on the board was appropriate. That summer there was a Presbyterian woman chairperson and a Baptist vice-chair. That quickly changed. The initial severance offered me was two weeks—after having been there twenty years. The non-Nazarene board members stood up for me and got a severance of nearly twenty weeks—reasonably after the research I had done. Those members then all left the board and became a referral base for my practice. I never contacted anyone Nazarene not wanting to be accused of proselytizing what base was left at the non-profit. (If a Nazarene called me, I would work with them.)
Saint Meinrad in southern Indiana
Not far from Saint Meinrad is Monte Cassino Shrine
In front of Monte Cassino Shrine are a few stone benches and this pulpit. I took the message to heart.
Family wise it was an anxious summer. The thought of loosing a salary while at the same time sending our oldest daughter off to college drove my worries through the roof. Our income was going drastically down, expenses going up. I went up to Saint Meinrad Abby in southern Indiana to get some clarity. Abby press was on site there at the time and they had beautiful calligraphy and needlework for sale at their bookstore. There was a gorgeous piece of Matthew 6:28 “Consider the lilies of the field how they grow—“. Being so full of fear the art spoke volumes to me but the price was too much—especially with where we were headed money wise.
Linda Snelling was a good friend who was in Frankfort, Kentucky. At the time she was the lay youth director at a Catholic Church downtown. During a phone conversation with her I mentioned the art at Saint Meinrad—how absolutely beautiful it was. A couple of weeks later turning into our driveway returning from work I saw a box leaning against the house. Linda had driven to Meinrad, bought it and mailed it. I was overwhelmed with her thoughtfulness.
As I started my private practice in January 1996 it hung in my office as well as in each of my offices until retirement in 2021.
It hangs in my study even now as I glance up from this keyboard.
It was a promise I clung too those months of angst. It is a promise to all of us. Circumstances may paralyze us for a season but God’s assurance remains steady.
Lilies ultimately became my favorite flower
On of my very favorites, white stargazers —from my garden
another from my garden
Sadly the summer of 1999 the non-profit closed.