A Busy Week

This past week was one of those extra-busy weeks for me.  I've learned in my almost five years of serving as a parish pastor that this is just a plain busy vocation.  The old joke about pastors only working a few hours a week on Sundays stopped being funny a long time ago.  Not that I'm complaining.  I love what I do.  I don't mind the busy-ness that goes hand-in-hand with being a full-time parish pastor.  I really don't.  I actually enjoy it.  What I do find difficult is trying to find an agreeable balance between being faithful to my vocation as a pastor and to my various other vocations as a husband, father, and home maintenance dude.  Often, the busy-ness of being a pastor results in having to miss this or that event in which my children participate and in getting woefully behind around the house (can you hear my wife, Lisa, screaming a hearty "AMEN!" to that?).

Anyway, this past week, I tried to do it all.  We had VBS this week every day from 9am-Noon, after which I grabbed a quick bite to eat and then started tackling the many chores and projects around the house that have piled up on me, while also trying to get my visits in, prepare Services, and write sermons.  A busy week, indeed!  Thank God my parents were here to help around the house.  Nowhere near as much would have been accomplished without them.  We got all the landscaping done that we wanted to get done, got the pool up and running, and got much of the preparations done for the big bash (Sarah's Open House) we'll be having here next weekend.  There is still much to do, but it is much more manageable than it was a week ago, and I'm confident that we'll get everything else done.  As for my pastoral duties, I'm still catching up on those.  Still have visits to make, sermons to finish, the newsletter to get ready, etc.  So, the busy-ness will continue, but such is life.

What I have learned about myself in trying to go full-bore from early morn to late at night is that I am woefully out of shape and my body doesn't agree with physical labor like it used to.  I need to catch me a little Weedon-itis and start making myself exercise daily, 'cause the aches and pains I've experienced this week have been no fun at all.  Man, if only I had more time . . . :)