March 6 – “On wills and trusts and dying stuff”

I signed up to take one of those classes through UTMB (The Osher Life Long Learning Institute, or OLLI for short) that allow old people to keep our minds sharp and active.  This one was supposed to be all about doing your will and how to handle trusts.  Things you need to know about right before you die.  Sounded kind of appropriate, given the target audience, so I was in.  I have been to two sessions now.  I missed the first one because we were in Big Bend sharpening other portions of our anatomy.  I checked about that class.  It was just an introduction.  No real significant information other than the handout packet, which was, significantly enough, all about wills and trusts and dying stuff.  If they didn’t talk about it then, we sure haven’t discussed it since.  Both classes I have been to have been a how-to seminar on investing.  Stocks, bonds, IRA’s, standard and Poor 500’s, Nasdaq techies, and Facebook, Amazon, and Netflix (That’s who you should already have stock in).  Whew.  It is well beyond my capacity to understand or care a whole lot about.

But here’s the thing.  It eerily reminds me of another period in my history.  Same sort of thing happened.  I was in the Ed.D. program.  I started the studies in the hope that it would help me be a better church staff member.  See, I had earlier fallen in love with the local church.  I can’t help it.  I love watching and being with people.  It is fun being there in the midst of weddings and babies and Little League and career accomplishments.  It is rewarding being there for hospital visits and difficult life struggles.  And since I get to know the people, it is difficult, but important to be there for the harder times, like funerals. 

So I signed on to get better equipped to do that job.  And then … over the course of the next two and a half years, it didn’t matter what course I signed up for, from “Leadership in a Church” to “Design and Implementation of Curriculum,” somehow by the second class session the professors managed to switch the content to “How to be a college president.”  Not professor, mind you.  I think I could have abided, and even embraced that.  No, this was clearly a school-wide ploy to train new administrators.  Not what I was interested in at all.  It was a life-altering decision for us, but I left the Ed.D. program and devoted my life to the local church.  Haven’t regretted the decision once. 

So now … if I apply the same logic and principles as before, things don’t bode well for me continuing in this class.  Now, Chris is interested in that investment stuff, so I may just let her finish out my term while I read through that first handout.  Oh, but I did get two important tidbits out of the sessions thus far. 

1.  It’s time to use your money.  Don’t be slaves to it. 

2. Opportunity seeks out the generous.  Be generous … now. 

Psalms 36:7 says, “How priceless is your unfailing love!  Both high and low among men find refuge in the shadow of your wings.”

Father, it never ceases to amaze me when people who don’t know the Bible discover biblical truths.  Amen.