Humor

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Larry Lilly's Letter Wednesday November 16, 2005

Do you ever get tired of red tape? It seems to me that every time I turn around I run smack dab into more red tape and too often the red tape is accompanied by someone with an attitude similar to Lily Tomlin's old, "I'm the Telephone Company and I don't have to care." Though you feel like screaming, you know there's not much you can do, so you just wimp out and go along with the program.

My wife is the person the Lord uses to calm me down, though sometimes in her efforts I feel more like screaming due to her platitudes about Romans 8:28 and other neat little verses that teach the fact of the Lord's control over the events of our life. She even found verses to justify bureaucrats. This really set me off and I told her that in no way would her ruminations about godly bureaucrats appear in Larry Lilly's Journal. I feel weak in that I compromised enough for you, the dedicated readers of these daily letters.

A few weeks ago The Great Blonde received a note from, Wist, a daily email that always has a quote and I often find a good thought from these emails. Well, she got a hold of this one and here she came with banners unfurled and flags flying to let me know once and hopefully for all, that God is in fact in charge of bureaucrats. This is hard for me to take as I have more than a little trouble accepting the English translations that teach God uses kings and other high rulers, let alone bureaucrats. To say things were tense at our place for a few days is another one of those understatements that contribute to our fame. I do find solace in knowing the said blonde one is blissfully happy that she, her grandfather's favorite, has made a major contribution to the sum total of Western knowledge.

The little quote from Wist:

"Quirinius, the patron saint of bureaucrats, is the Roman bureaucrat who ordered the census that brought Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem; a bureaucratic regulation started the Incarnation."

When I immediately pointed out the theological error of the statement, she informed me that no amount of religious pomposity would get me off the hook, as the poor writer of Wist probably has no theological training, but he did point out the fact that God used a Roman bureaucrat to get the players in place for that night of nights. She uttered, "That night of nights" with just the right amount of wonder at God's omnipotent hand and just enough smugness to let me know she had me and she knew it and furthermore, wisdom dictates that I recognize her greatness in this.

Personally, I thrill in my innards at the story of The Incarnation, especially the shepherds watching the flock and leaving said flock to go and worship Jesus. For these many years, 44 now, God, in His mercy has blocked out the obvious role of the bureaucrats. And now some stranger, aided by my wife of 41 years elevates bureaucrats to a higher level. I sure hope the people in the office at the phone and cable companies do not find out that God uses people, even bureaucrats to do His will. What if the Post Office finds out?

Larry Lilly Copyright © 2005 Use with credit.

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