Manic Monday Mayhem

365 Days of Thanksliving — Day 204

All this time, I feel like I’ve been bamboozled (and probably every GenX boy, too). You remember that song, “Manic Monday,” sung by the totally cute Susanna Hoffs of the Bangles? Yahhhh… none of those ladies ever wrote that awesome song.

Wanna know who did? Huh? Huh? Prince did!

Ya, that one. You know his birth name: none other than Mr. Prince Rogers Nelson: Mr. Purple Rain himself. HE penned that famous song. Gosh, the world will just never be the same. Bwahahaha!

Anyway… today was one of those days—the “Manic Monday” kind. Must’ve been a Minnesotan thing, being that Prince wrote it. But apparently, per other folks I chatted with today, it was just “one of those days” for a bunch of us—just ask my treasurer, Stacey. She’ll fill ya in.

By noon, she and I were ready to lose our ever-loving minds and blow our tops. Just picture the grand finale of the 1812 Overture with cannon fire in the background—like that, just not as festive. There were fireworks, though… I’ll bang on with that in a bit, but let me build up to it a bit.

Just like Tchaikovsky’s masterpiece, the morning started out gently, beautifully, peacefully. I arrived early, settled in, munched on my breakfast, and fired up Spotify and my “New Wave 80s” playlist. Then, with a pep in my step, I moved on to project No. 1: setting up my office manager’s new Mac mini; and as I did, the background music began to build.

A phone call here, an interruption there; and then, me—a guy who’s fairly tech-minded and has set up numerous Apple devices and new Apple IDs—kept getting repetitive errors trying to set up the new Mac ID. Goodness, I’ve built computers. Turning one on and getting set up isn’t rocket science.

That said, the new Mac mini wasn’t wanting to play ball… well, more like the software behind the firewall at Apple HQ wasn’t wanting to play ball. With my stress level building, and the interruptions continuing to come in like NO Monday ever, I called Apple support to get some help.

While Apple’s AI was helpful, the hooman halfway across the world (who had a stereotypical “tech support” accent) was a condescending you-know-what—like, on repeat. Thirty-five minutes later, with little success, I had to move on because my Monday mentee arrived, a nice break from how the manic morning had begun.

Just as Max and I were picking up some steam and exploring God’s Word, my treasurer pulled me into her office to help with a hostile account manager: Frontier Communications. Need I say more? IYKYK!

All’s I can say is it didn’t take too long before she and I had lost ALL patience—any bit of pastoral mindedness, meekness, and mildness went right out the window. I’ll spare ya the fun. Needless to say, it felt like one of those “Job” kind of moments wherein Heaven and Hell were having a cage match, testing our patience to see how we’d respond. I’m not sure I won.

Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned… Good thing “Annette” (the customer service rep) wasn’t nearby. I would’ve had to walk away. Yah… anyway. Stacey and I, realizing we weren’t getting anywhere with our antagonistic agent, got off the call. We both needed to let the steam flow out from our ears and let our tops cool down.

By this afternoon, my spirit had calmed, thanks in part to listening ears (like my ever-patient and graceful wife), and other friends who gave their time to this frustrated pastor. And you know, thank God for them. No, truly; I am thankful for friends like them who listened, just so I could get the frustration off my chest. Although slightly out of context, the Apostle Paul’s words here perfectly fit my friends:

“Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ”—Galatians 6:2.

Heavenly Father, thank you for giving us all friends who listen, who bear our burdens with us when we’re stressed. Bless all my friends today who listened and supported me when James's words went right out the window. Give us all patience when we need it, and friends when we lose it to keep us sane.