Monday morning. Time to review the appointments for the week. They jumped at me from the pages of my desk calendar: stewardship committee, premarital counseling, confirmation class, baptismal counseling, prospective member visit, newsletter article to write, bulletin to prepare, wedding rehearsal, wedding, church council.

All of a sudden, visions of low-voltage switchgears popped into my head.

To this day I am not sure what a "low-voltage switchgear" does. I know it has something to do with electricity. I spent one summer during seminary working nights in a factory that manufactured them. I was one of four men on the paint line.

Jim stood at the beginning of the line, hanging unpainted parts on hooks extended from an overhead belt. The parts would be washed and dried automatically and then move past Gary and Vern, the two actual painters, who would assault them with spray guns. The belt then moved up close to the ceiling, and the freshly painted parts traveled a leisurely course ...