Washing Windows # 2

What was I saying about liking to wash windows? After a successful completion of the windows on Tuesday, I decided to do the windows in the living room/dining room. The inside windows were easily done in the same procedure as on Tuesday. The outside of the windows are another story, literally.

Counting from the ground level these windows are on the second story of our house. The garage entrance is directly below these windows. In the past I would haul our aluminum extension ladder (why didn’t I buy a fiber glass one?) around from its storage at the other end of the house. Setting up that ladder is tricky so as not to have it crash through one of the window panels I was to wash. The window is an angled five section bay window. Each panel is 2 feet wide and a little over 4 feet in length.

This year, Nancy bought me an extension pole with a sponge and squeegee on the head. I pulled off the protective plastic from the pole and the head. Sigh, the head was not constructed properly and the sponge was not tightly held in place. About 15 minutes of work with pliers, trying to re-crimp the teeth into place to hold the sponge, proved futile. Okay, I have another but smaller head to screw onto the extension pole. Drats! The thread on the pole is larger than the inside thread on the head. Okay, a couple of threads would be enough to hold the head onto the pole, but don’t force it and ruin both.

Now outside and extend the pole to full length. Drats, again! The pole is about 18’ too short. Okay, I have another short pole. I will just fasten it to the long pole and we’re in business. Where is my roll of duct tape? Several wraps and the two poles are attached. However, it is too flimsy and now I cannot apply the proper pressure on the squeegee. Drag out a rickety 6’ wooden step ladder. That gets me high enough, but I cannot get the right angle either to wash the windows nor squeegee them clean.

There is only one solution left. Yep, drag out the extension ladder and wrestle it around. The windows are finally done and look a lot better.

Sometimes what appear to be easy solutions do not work; use a lot of valuable time; and leave us frustrated. What worked yesterday may not work today. There are times when doing things the “hard way” is the only way. How many times do we experience this in ministry? Context is everything. Last year’s budget, bulletin, vacation bible school curriculum, elder training or website just doesn’t work this year. Neither we nor those we serve are the same this year as last year. Pulling out a sermon we used in seminary or in a previous parish for the same lectionary text seems so much easier than working through the arduous task of writing a new sermon. Re-running last year’s budget does not take into consideration the changing context of the congregation.

I could have finished the windows in much less time and gotten out of the heat a lot sooner if I had just gone through the harder work of dragging and wrestling that extension ladder.