input: mr grumpy

grumpy: surly or ill-tempered; discontentedly or sullenly irritable; grouchy

I recon that on my death bed, one of the things I would most regret about life would be if I hadn’t had a whole bucket load of fun along the way. And even now, if I could re-write bits of my worship leading journey, the thing I would put in the script would be a whole lot of laughter.

You will know by now that from time to time, my team call me Mr grumpy. And let’s face it, I can be very grumpy from time to time. And even as I write this, I feel a little convicted about my miserableness. Whether it’s because my three shot latte isn’t quite hot enough, or that my pannini was only cooked for the standard three minutes rather than the four minutes that I prefer. I get especially grumpy when my in-ear monitors don’t work properly, (Although let’s face it, in-ear monitors are designed specifically to not work properly), and I get grumpy when my bass player turns up the usual 4 minutes late on a Sunday morning (what is it about bass players that they are always 4 minutes late. to the second!).

Every so often our church makes the local press. Especially at things like the carol service. And I have noticed that there is never a picture of me in the paper. It’s always someone like Melody Ball or Hitchman or Bailey. And that really annoys me. I do all the hard work and slog my guts out for months then right at the end, Hitchman or Bailey turn up and steal the glory. It’s so hurtful.

But maybe it’s because I just look to miserable.

I have now spotted this permanent little groove on my face between my eyes that I recon isn’t a laughter line, but a grumpiness line. How sad.

And I know the effect that grumpiness in others has on me. The thing that causes me most sleepless nights: winging and critical emails. The thing that causes me to want to avoid coming into the office each day: the possibility that I may have to have a conversation with a grumpy person. The thing that drains the life out of me the most: the miserable egit who can always see the problem in what I do.

Barry Kissell is a great friend of our church, and recently he talked about the fact that he didn’t have new year’s resolutions, but new year’s intentions. So here is one of mine: to have as much fun as possible without breaking the ten commandments.

And when I look back at some of the most enjoyable and fruitful times in my worship leading journey, they seem to have come when I have had a bunch of happy smiling faces around me. I look back to New Wine when I have had Melody, Laura, Jules and Nae (the original ‘diamonds’) and Jake and Kev and Stu and Pete and Dave playing with me. It was awesome fun. I think about the time that our team of pastors here at Trinity go for our bi-weekly ‘pastors meeting’ at a little local Italian and share dodgy jokes or take the rise out of Hitchman. I think about the times that at worship team practice we abandon our instruments and plug in ‘guitar heros 2’ onto the big video screens in church.

The people that seem to sustain me in ministry (apart from Jesus of course) seem to be the fun people, the people that bring laughter, the people who smile. So one of the things I would encourage others to do is seek out people who inject fun into their lives and ministry. Learn to laugh at others and yourself without getting insecure. And maybe when that grumpy person starts to head towards you on the street in town - why not just cross over and walk by on the other side.

Certainly this is definitely my intention:

No more Mr Grumpy.