One moment please.
Reflections on life and faith.
The day I met the devil.
It was a beautiful Monday in late August in my first day in my first church as pastor in a small village church in rural Ohio.
The day and the future were bright with possibilities.
And I was ecstatic at the beginning of my career as a parish minister for which I had studied and prepared myself for years.
Life was good and the future seemed bright.
I was busily unpacking boxes of books in my new office and getting things in order.
My study door was open and I could hear the whirring sounds of a vacuum cleaner somewhere in the building.
The part-time custodian was busy cleaning the church from Sunday services.
As I began to put my office together soon the trash can was full.
I noted that no one bothered to come into my study to clean so I took the overly full trash can and placed it in the hallway in front of my office door in the hope that the custodian would see it and empty it.
Suddenly from the hallway I heard the gruff sounds of a gravelly female voice.
She didn't speak a word but growled a loud oomph.
Startled I turned and I saw an old lady who looked about the oldest of anyone I had ever met.
She was barely five feet tall,
Slightly hunched over,
Had deep creases in her face and a scowl on her face that would frighten a ghost.
Despite her harsh oomph I turned towards her,
Smiled and proceeded to the door extending my hand in greeting which she did not take.
I introduced myself to which she only said,
I know who you are.
She then went on to say,
We have a rule around here that if you make a mess you clean it up.
Well I knew that wasn't true because we had a custodian in the building and this gruff old lady I later discovered was her mother who came to help.
Being young,
Inexperienced and somewhat foolish I chose to debate her by telling her that what she said wasn't true.
Why else would we have a custodian?
The verbal temperature began to rise as we exchanged heated words.
Finally I reached down to pick up the trash can to take it to the basement to empty it myself.
She reached for it in my arms and something of a tug of war ensued.
Finally I won the war and snatched the trash can from her arms and took it to the basement.
On my way I was thinking that she had to be the meanest woman I had ever encountered.
Suddenly the day that had been so bright and promise filled became dark with the storm clouds of anger hovering over it.
Since we did not live in the community yet,
I had a 45 minute commute home.
I stood on my encounter with this mean old woman all the way.
When I came into my house my wife was waiting for me and cheerily asked well how was your first day?
With a scowl I responded horrible.
I met the devil today and the worst news is she is a member of our church.
I later found out that this scary mean old woman was named Ethel.
She grew up in the hills of eastern Kentucky on a tobacco farm.
She had buried three husbands and life had made her bitter and gruff and mean.
I heard a rumor that on Halloween the kids in the neighborhood never went to her house on beggars night.
Everyone it seemed found it better to just stay out of her way.
To further complicate things not only was she a member of my new church but lived in the alleyway just behind the church and was known to come by on occasion and always unannounced.
I knew that I couldn't be a pastor to her if I didn't get my own feelings toward her in a better place than they were.
One day as I was thinking about how to move beyond my hostile feelings towards her the idea came to me to make her my friend.
So instead of avoiding her I began to seek her out.
Since we were a one car family I would often walk the mile or so to the church and I would always make it a point to go down the alleyway to pass her house.
If she was on her porch or working in her garden I would stop and engage her in conversation.
At times as she began to warm to me a bit I would even sit on the porch and she and I would chat.
In time she lost her gruffness with me and we actually had some civil conversations as I listened to her story and discovered why she had become so gruff and so mean.
Ethel had had a hip which often gave her great pain.
One day as I passed her house in the alleyway I saw her limping so I stopped to talk.
She referred to her issue as being her hind leg.
By this time we were on friendly terms and I had even given her a nickname,
Polecat.
For those who might not know what a Polecat is,
In the south from which I hail a Polecat is a skunk.
Ethel returned the favor and also gave me the same.
To her I simply became Polecat,
Two skunk friends.
On this occasion when I saw her limping I told her I would get the axe out of her tool shed and we would chop off that hind leg.
I then went on to say that I heard that Sears had a sale on new hind legs and we would take her old one in to see if there was some trade in value on a new one.
I always managed to get her to laugh.
Over time I went out of my way to do a number of kindnesses to my new friend Polecat as she always insisted on returning the favor.
In time she even invited me to plant a garden alongside hers in her backyard.
She and I would together pick off the suckers on our tomato plants,
Hoe our beans and then sit in the shade and sip iced tea as the sun began to lower.
We would talk about life and she began to share with me things she had never shared with another human being.
She always asked me to quote pray a big strong prayer for her end of quote,
Which I always did.
When Polecat died I had her funeral.
Mostly what I shared were funny stories and events with my friend Polecat.
Lots of laughter was heard that day in the funeral home as I told my stories and we said our goodbyes to someone who had become one of my dearest friends.
I'm so glad that several years before when I came to that new church that I had listened to my conviction to make someone who seemed like the devil in the flesh to become my friend.
My life and I believe hers were enriched as a result.
Is there someone difficult or even hateful in your life that you can make an effort to befriend?
Is there someone who is now an enemy that you can make an effort to be a friend?
For One Moment Please,
This is Randall Spence.
