When the Lights Go Out
By Kara Wesely, Stewardship and Development Office
Stewardship & Development professionals often hear and say the phrase ‘donations keep the lights on.’ Depending on which way you lean, you either love or hate this expression. Some say keeping the lights on allows miracles to happen in our schools, churches and organizations. Some say people need more inspiration to give a gift than simply funding operating costs. There is no right or wrong answer, just personal preference. I, for one, prefer the miracles thinking.
I bring this up because one evening in September 2019, the lights went out in the Stewardship & Development office. Our building – the beautiful, century old, Mercy Hall – lost power. It was the evening before our office’s largest event, the Archbishop’s Dinner for Education at which we host close to 1,000 guests, and I had important last minute plans that involved printing, editing excel sheets, following up with emails and more…all of which required a computer and a printer…which require electricity.
I am embarrassed to say that I immediately started to panic. I feel like my mind went through the three stages of what I like to call E.P.P.- Event Planner Panic:
- Sheer Panic. This stage typically involves a sinking feeling in your stomach, followed by ringing of the ears and lightheadedness.
- Selfish Thought Blindness. This stage involves a rapid fire of internal dialogue, which blinds you to any rational thinking and involves only ‘I’ or ‘me’ statements – I failed, I don’t know what I am going to do, why does this have to happen to me, etc.
- Outward Facing Humor. This phase involves making light of the situation and making lame jokes to those around you, all in an attempt to avoid everyone from freaking out, while simultaneously you’re so nervous that it now feels like a small alien has taken residence inside your stomach.
And because of E.P.P., our event didn’t happen. The end.
Just kidding.
Guess what? The event did happen. Not only did it happen, it had a positive impact on those who attended. You know why? Because the event wasn’t about me and the power outage that impacted my plans. It was about celebrating the gift of Catholic education, celebrating our humble and outstanding Catholic school educators, celebrating our incredible students, celebrating all those who generously support Catholic education and celebrating the fact that all of this can bring us closer to Christ.
Often times, chaos, stress and, in my case, ego force us to lose sight of the bigger picture, of the ‘why’ behind , and the fruit in mind of what we do. I am embarrassed to say that my ego blinded me, but what I am not embarrassed to say is that the whole experience taught me a lesson. My work is about the mission of our church, not about my personal to do list and I don’t do it alone.
***Disclaimer- the Stewardship & Development office is current on its electric bill. The power outage was caused by a blown transformer***
Kara Wesely can be contacted at kjwesely@archomaha.org.