Sabbath day it is not. With worship, Sunday school, adult education classes, confirmation class and youth programs the day is a wind swept plain of spiritual insanity. Seriously, it’s a day of exhaustion and energy that can only be provided by the Spirit. So how, my dear friends, do we do this over and over again? The grace of God, coffee, the smiles of young children, the rare ‘thank you’ and the belief that we can make a difference. Yes, the things that we often dismiss before entering ministry, based on humility and modesty, are the things that sustain us now. Oh were we wiser.
The things that we can see the results of are few and far between. The things that eat up our daily time are even hard for us to understand. Did I really spend 15 hours preparing to teach those classes? And yet, when we least expect it the day is zapped by the unwitting power of the computer, the creature that I type this lonely note on. See, I can reach out through the web and research, communicate, ponder, plan and even arrange. In those minutes, hours, and mountains of time my work is propelled rapidly and slumped into sluggish turpitude. The beauty of information becomes the overload. Was it better before? Was a lesson more meaningful when it didn’t have the hours of screen time? Did the pastor have more or less human interaction? Questions that I, alas, will never know the answers too. My world is tied to the crutch and platform of technology. If only I could see more results with this box of ideas. Then. Yes then, I might actually want to continue in its presence.
Sunday. A beer in hand. A foot on the table. I wait, willingly, wantingly, for the next one. For in those hours there is life, there is vision, and the hours of waiting and lingering are brought into the exultant conclusions of worship and community. This is, after all, why I wanted to be a minister. I just have to keep reminding myself of that…
