Part II

I’ll briefly re-introduce you to the Tators we met. There was the father, Dick Tator.  Once you meet Dick, you never forget him.  He’s always telling everyone what to do and has a lot of trouble admitting he’s wrong about anything or taking advice from anyone.

And then his wife, Emmy Tator—we met her also.  She’s a lovely lady, but a bit obsessed with trying to be like everyone else.  I tried to help Emmy see that each of us is uniquely made by God, and when we try to imitate other people, we’re denying the specialness of our own self, as God has designed us.

Then we did have an opportunity to meet their teenage son, Aggie Tator.  Like me, you probably felt a little sorry for Aggie.  Bless his heart, he’s such a troublemaker and gives everyone such fits.  He seems to delight in causing dissension, starting gossip, upsetting people, destroying the family unity.  When I asked him about that, I discovered there was a lot of anger inside of him, which has turned to bitterness, and he takes it out by being a troublemaker.  Sure hope Aggie can learn to turn that anger and bitterness over to the Lord.

So, now let’s meet the rest of this most interesting family.  There are two more we want to meet.  Next is their daughter, Hessie Tator.  I can tell you that Dick Tator gets very frustrated with Hessie because she’s always late.  And no matter how hard Dick tries to speed her up and make her do what he wants her to do, she can never make up her mind what she’s going to wear and she always waits to the last minute.

When I first met her, I liked Hessie right off.  When I asked her what she plans to do with her life, she was full of lots of ideas. She has been out of high school for three years, and she talks about what she’s going to do when she graduates from college.  Sounds like she’s doing some good planning.

But her Dad, Dick Tator, is really frustrated with her.  “When you finish college!” he said with a loud voice. “You haven’t even started and you’ve wasted three whole years.”

That upset Hessie Tator.  She said, “Well, Dad, give me a break.  I’m going to college; I just have to make sure it’s the right one.  And after college, I plan to get an advanced degree in my field, so that I can qualify for a really good job.  I think it’s important to have a good education, don’t you?”

Well, of course I agreed with her that education is an important tool, but I just couldn’t understand why she hadn’t started college yet.  She had an answer for that, too.

Hessie Tator said, “Well, I think you have to find yourself, you know, so I’ve been finding myself since I got out of high school.  I think soon I’ll be ready to go to college.  I’m getting catalogs and looking at the requirements for different colleges and all that, you know.  I’m sure I’ll be in college real soon.  Education is important and I plan to go right to the top.”

I asked her what she’s been doing meanwhile.  She wasn’t quite so forthcoming about that.

“Meanwhile?” she said.  “Oh, I’ve been kinda busy.  Some friends and I plan to start a shelter for homeless people.  We’ve been talking about it, and we’ve got some neat plans.  It’s a good idea.”

“Sounds like it, Hessie,” I said.  “When do you plan to start?”

“Well,” she said, “there’s still lots of details to work out, we have to find a house and raise support, but we’ve got it all down on paper.  It’s a great idea.”

I realized that Hessie is good at making plans—even putting them on paper—but that’s about as far as she ever gets.  I tried to gently point this out to her.  I said, “Hessie, you’ve made lots of plans but you haven’t done very much, have you?  I wonder if you tend to procrastinate, Hessie—put things off?”

She was a little self-conscious about that.  “Well, that’s what my Dad always tells me,” she chuckled.  I can imagine Dick Tator tells her that a lot.

I reminded Hessie Tator what Jesus said to his disciples: “Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.”  Blessing comes in doing, and Hessie seems to have a little difficulty getting to the “doing” stage, so she keeps missing the blessing.

She realized that and said she intended to stop procrastinating right away.

You know, Jesus’ life on earth confirms that he didn’t procrastinate.  When he said he would travel to Jerusalem, he did so, even when he knew the cross awaited him there.  What he promised, he fulfilled in every instance.  Jesus was a doer, and as I reminded Hessie Tator, if we allow him to live his life through us, I think he’ll direct us to get rid of that procrastination habit.

Here’s a motto I’ve found helpful:  Do it right and do it now!  It a simple guideline that can solve a lot of problems for people like Hessie Tator. Do you remember the parable Jesus told in Luke 6 about the one who hears the truth but does not act accordingly?  Jesus said that person is like one who builds a house on the sand, and as soon as the storms come, the house collapses and is ruined because the foundation is not firm.  When a person is a hearer but not a doer, they are inviting disaster into their lives, and denying the blessings that God has in store for them, for remember, the blessing is in doing, not in knowing.

After we talked for a while, Hessie confessed to me that the reason she puts things off is because she gets afraid.  “I mean, what if I blow it?” she said.  “My Dad would have a fit and what would everyone think?”

Fear of failure is a common problem for many people.  You know, whenever you do anything you do run the risk of failing, but if that fear controls you, you’ll simply never do anything.  And besides, no one ever succeeded without many failures along the way.  Failure is a part of the process of success.  It’s important to learn that truth.

Well, there’s one more member of this unique family which I’d like you to get to know.  It’s Grandpa Spec Tator.  When I met Grandpa, I said, “You’ve got quite an interesting family here, Grandpa.  Dick Tator, your son, Emmy Tator, your daughter-in-law, and your grandchildren, Aggie Tator and Hessie Tator.  They’re quite a family.”

He agreed with me right away, then he said, “However, as I see it, they all could use some improvement.  That son of mine, Dick Tator, he needs to pipe down once in a while  and listen to the rest of us.  And Emmy can drive you crazy trying to be like everyone else, always talking about what others have that she doesn’t have.  And as far as Aggie is concerned, he has been nothing but trouble since he was born.  Hessie’s a sweet girl, but never does anything.  Talks big, never does anything.”

When I asked him why he thought they’re that way, he said, “Beats me.  I’ve always told them the right way to live and what to do.”

The truth is, Grandpa Spec has always told them what to do, but he doesn’t live it out in front of them.  He just sits on the sidelines, spectating, if you know what I mean. Spec Tator said his philosophy was Live and Let Live.  “I don’t bother anyone else, they don’t bother me.  I just do my own thing,” he told me.

I decided to see how far I could get with him.  “Grandpa Spec,” I said, “do you think that’s how the Lord would have us live our lives—uninvolved, a spectator, just watching everyone else instead of getting in there and helping?  If everyone watched from the sidelines, nothing would happen.”

You know what he said?  “Well, I’m just not the type, I guess, Mary.  At church there’s always someone else who’s willing to help, so I just don’t volunteer or anything.  Seems like the job always gets done anyway.”

I tried to suggest that maybe he should get in there and help them do it.  Someone has said that the church today is much like a football game.  The majority of the people are watching a small minority perform.  And those watching desperately need exercise, while those performing desperately need rest.

You know, there are an awful lot of people like Grandpa Spec Tator, who stay in the bleachers, yelling at everyone else, but never getting involved in the fight.  The 80/20 factor is a well-known measure in the business world.  We usually get 80% of our business from 20% of our customers and 80% of our problems from 20% of our customers.  Unfortunately so often the body of Christ has that same problem.  So much of the work is done by so few.

Have you ever thought how wonderful it would be if the Spec Tators of the world would join in and pull their share of the weight?  I’ve noticed that the Spec Tators are the first to criticize, the first to find fault.  A person who is involved in the performing and doing is much more understanding and tolerant than those who simply stand on the sidelines and watch.

Well, now you’ve met the whole Tator family:  Dick Tator, Emmy Tator, their children, Aggie and Hessie, and Grandpa Spec Tator.  I wonder, have you met the Tator family before?  I wouldn’t be surprised.  Sometimes we all have some “Tator” characteristics in our lives, and if this lighthearted way of looking at them helps us to take a closer look at ourselves, then the “Tator” family has done us a real service.

As Christians in a world that watches us closely, we need to be certain that our lives demonstrate the qualities of our Savior, so that those who are searching can be led to the abundant life we have found in Christ.