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Sharlene Paul with office staff Jennifer Garvey & Becky Harper

Oxygen

God’s Holy Spirit, moving and breathing in you, is the most intimate part of your life…

Her very breath is a gift of God. There are humid summer days when breath does not come easily. But she has come to know the life-giving goodness of family and her church community. Where two or three or more are gathered, she breathes in the life of God.

Sharlene Paul wouldn’t have guessed that a lunchtime conversation in the church office would lead us to the book of Ephesians. In one translation, the Apostle Paul writes, “God’s Holy Spirit, moving and breathing in you, is the most intimate part of your life, making you fit for himself. Don’t take such a gift for granted.” Put aside anger and wrangling, Paul writes, and instead “learn to live a life of love.”

A dozen years of asthma keep Sharlene grateful for every breath. A boisterous extended family keeps her grateful for demonstrative expressions of love. And an active faith community keeps her amazed at how God breathes life into people.

Sharlene is a familiar figure in the St. Paul church office. She answers the phone, joins others in collating this newsletter you hold in your hands, counts offering money, and often shares a plate of her home-baked cookies with others. She is willing and eager to serve. A veteran of 37 years as an executive administrative assistant at Deere and Company, Sharlene is famous for taking good notes and tending to details. “I like to be able to follow through and help people when they’re busy,” she says.

So she was the obvious choice when it came time to assemble a team that will handle the mailings for this fall’s capital campaign, Acting with Love for the World. Sharlene and co-leader Ann Quist have recruited a dozen or so volunteers who will collate, label, and fold. There will no doubt be lemon bars. There will certainly be laughter. Across the table, friendships are bound to grow.

Sharlene and her sister Shirley Berodt are the oldest in a family of six siblings, born to a farm family near Dixon, Iowa. With an often-angry father who was “not a demonstrative person” and a caring mother who did her best to hold the family together, Sharlene and Shirley became responsible for watching over the younger kids.

Sharlene recalls only one time when her father showed affection to her. So she carries memories of her mother as a model for her own life. “She was giving, happy, caring, and she always had a smile on her face,” says Sharlene.

That non-demonstrative childhood has been transformed into a boisterous extended family of siblings, nieces, and nephews who “never part without a hug and a kiss. We stay in touch almost every day by phone or email.” Frequent game nights and cookouts “get so noisy with laughter.” The clan gladly shares their family joy with Sharlene’s stepdaughter and a string of friends.
“It has a lot to do with attitude,” says a grateful Sharlene. Never mind that sometimes she can’t catch her breath. She gets her oxygen from the people around her.

Sharlene’s family calls her “O1,” the “ornery one” — even though she’s anything but ornery. It’s her penchant for offbeat humor that won her the nickname. She’s apt to wrap a pair of clown shoes or a cabbage as a birthday gift. (There are certain advantages to volunteering in the church office. That’s where she laid claim to a cast-off box just right for a gift cabbage.)

“We have amazing people here at St. Paul,” people who are “quick to say yes” when asked to serve, says Sharlene. She “loves working in the church office. I get to know the staff. I used to put pastors up on a pedestal,” she chuckles. “But I found out they’re human. Knowing them is a real present to me.”
Sharlene’s attention to detail is a good match for her counted cross-stitch hobby. She loves to travel, cook, and bake. But her genuine passion is people and “doing something that will be helpful.”

Serving with a generous spirit, Sharlene is a genuine breath of fresh air in an active church office. Here in her church, where the word of God takes hold of people and sends them out with love for others, Sharlene Paul gets her oxygen.

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"To pray does not mean to listen to oneself speaking. Prayer involves becoming silent, and being silent, and waiting until God is heard." ~Søren Kierkegaard