A Fly Went By

Recently our three-year-old daughter, Abby, has been reading (or rather we have been reading to her) a delightful book, A Fly Went By. The gist of the book is this: a little boy was sitting by a lake and watched a fly zoom by. The fly was chased by a frog. When the boy stopped the frog, he learned the amphibian could care less about the fly, he was worried about the cat. When the cat was stopped, "What frog?" he said, he was running from the dog! This went on until the end where we rhythmically say:

The fly ran away
In fear of the frog,
Who ran from the cat,
Who ran from the dog.
The dog ran away from the pig,
Who ran from the cow.
She was so big!
The cow ran away
From the fox, who ran
As fast as he could
In fear of the man.
That man heard a thump,
And away he ran!
It was just a sheep,
With an old tin can!

A benign little lamb with a tin can tied around her leg startled the man and the whole domino effect ensued. All of the chaos, all of the fear, all of the running, was based on a false assumption.

How many of our conflicts - personal, professional, or in the church arise from something as harmless as a lamb? Without patience, perseverance, and trust, we run, we assume, we react. And when we do - a series of events follows.

May we slow down and look, listen, and love. Conflict happens. But not all conflict comes from a desire to cause harm. Sometimes a fly just goes by.

Fr. Steve+