Well it makes you think anyway

I'm on the board of a small, progressive faith-based organization which is rebirthing itself after near-total dormancy. I'm the treasurer. The organization is in somewhat dire financial straits. As the treasurer, I have seen it as my duty to push my fellow board members to think about the Worst Case Scenario, financially speaking. I've been at the helm of organizations on the brink of financial disaster, and if there's one thing I've learned, it's that you can't wait until you're in crisis to start planning for crisis. By then, it's far, far too late.

Some of my fellow board members are clergywomen, though, and although they've certainly shared my anxiety and paid attention to my charts and graphs, there has been a certain element of "we're on the right path, and God will provide." Myself, I've been pretty skeptical of that approach. My conception of the Creative Force of the Universe just doesn't work that way. If something is stagnating, she's more likely to sweep it away in the power of her unstoppable creativity than to pause and pluck it out of harm's way.

So imagine my surprise when a sizeable (for us, anyway) bequest check arrived in the mail, out of the blue. Not enough to solve all our problems in the long run, but enough to provide substantial breathing room. In all my years at charitable organizations, I have never, not once, received a sudden, unsolicited influx of cash from a mysterious guardian angel right at the eleventh hour. It's just too Dickensian. Or too Hollywood.

And so my clergywomen colleagues just laugh with knowing, satisfied delight, while I'm left shaking my head, unsure what to think.