Writer Wednesday

With all the cleaning and organizing I’ve had to do over the last few weeks I have found some interesting things, an orange rotary telephone, history books, a milk carton costume and old class notes and homework.  I haven’t been in school for a while and some of the notes (especially from statistics class) look like Hieroglyphics.  However I did find a creative writing assignment from my Teacher Training class at church and since its Writer Wednesday I figured I would put that old homework to use and post it here.         

 

Slate

Allow me to introduce myself.  The name’s Slate.  Slate P. Schedule to be precise and when you’re in my line of business it’s important to be precise.  My official title is Two Year Planner and I work for a man named Amos O’Brady.  In my pages you can find Amos’ every movement day in and day out from morning ‘till night.  Even his bedtime is scheduled in solid black ink.

 

Amos was until recently very easy to work for.  He wrote each appointment with in my pages and did not deviate from my commands.  On Monday mornings he would get up at 6:00am and prepare for work.  He would be out the door at exactly 7:00am and seated at his desk with a warm cup of coffee by 8:00am.  Amos would then check my pages for his daily duties and complete them without fail.  If at any point he was for some reason required to change events in my pages it bothered him.  You see Amos treasured my input.  I had his life in control and he loved the consistency I provided.  I was for Amos security.  He enjoyed checking off the lists I contained and hated when something or someone kept him from following the schedule he had written in black ink.

 

However, recently all that has changed.  Amos’ loyalties to me have waned over the past few weeks and I will explain why.  You see Amos became a Christian.  At first the changes for me were small.  Amos scheduled Church on Sunday’s.  Amos scheduled prayer time before work and Bible study in the evenings.  At first I enjoyed the added responsibility of holding these new appointments.  Then things took a turn for the worse.  One Thursday at 2:04pm Amos’ new pastor called him at work.  Their conversation went as follows;

 

“Hello there Amos, how are you today?”
“I’m doing well Pastor.  How are you?”
“Just great!  I actually called to let you know that we’re going to be doing some cleaning at the church tonight along with dinner afterwards.  Do you think you can make it?”

               

Now I already knew Amos’ answer to the Pastor’s question.  Inside my pages Amos had the evening scheduled:

 

5:00- Home from work
6:00- Dinner: Chicken Alfredo
7:00- Laundry
8:00- Law and Order
9:00- Bible Study
10:00- Bed              

 Amos O’Brady would not change these plans for anything.  They were written in black ink!  He would tell the Pastor “Sorry my Slate is already filled for the evening.  Maybe I can schedule something like this in the future.”  After all the chicken alfredo was ready to go into the oven and Law and Order was new tonight.  However Amos did something unexpected.  He looked at my page, he saw that unwavering black ink and then tossed me aside.  He said to that pastor,

 “I would love to help.  I’ll be there right after work.”

 I could not believe it.  Amos completely disregarded my orders!  My clearly laid out plans were tossed aside.  The black ink within my pages meant nothing to him.  He chose this spontaneous, unplanned time of fellowship with these people and service to the Lord over his own well thought out, precise, clear and consistent plans.

 That night Amos sat down with me and did something I’ll never forget.  He wrote some word inside my cover that said;

Proverbs 16:9
“The mind of man plans his way.
  But the LORD directs his steps.”

Amos still writes his plans inside my pages, but he no longer uses that unwavering black ink.  Now he writes his plans in pencil and knows the eraser belongs to God.