My Grandson’s newest game. I call it “Toddler Trainwreck”
It is 11:52 P.M. I was asleep. I had given up on the day and this post among other things. I was tired, so I retired to my recliner (the place I am currently spending most nights to watch over Mom). I was actually sleeping pretty good and then I heard mom trying to rise to get to the bathroom.
I am glad she did. I am glad she needed the help to the bathroom. It gave me the push I needed to finish the day. So I plugged in the Mom’s medical pad and logged in her final meds for the day which I had neglected to do at supper time, and now I am finishing up this blog. I feel accomplished…and cute… just like my grandson playing his new game of “toddler train wreck”.
I am playing train wreck with the end of the day. Does it qualify if this blog about yesterday is actually posted at 12:01 A.M. today? I think it should.
I can’t believe it has been six days since I have taken a moment to breathe and write here on “Notes…”.
It’s not that I haven’t written anything. I am doing daily VLOGS and daily written devotionals during the 21 days of fasting and prayer. Our congregational word for the year is “PREPARE”
God is sharing with me during this season, that I will be leading the church through a time of preparation and carrying out the fruit of that preparation. I feel like we are at the beginning of a great race. I also sense it may not be a very long race once it begins, but it is going to consume every bit of energy and resource we are preparing.
One thing I am learning is that oof I am going to prepare I need to do a little everyday without missing a day. Consistency is going to be a very important part of my days ahead.
WHAT ARE THE IMPORTANT CHARACTERISTICS OF YOUR YEAR AHEAD?
It has been three days since I have written here. In my defense, I have produced two daily devotional videos, and I have written six meditations for our 21 days of prayer and fasting.
I have also been doing some pastoral care for sick parishioners. Phone calls, visitation and what not.
Today was given to more writing and a trip to the Verizon store to reactivate Brenda’s American cell phone and then to Walmart for supplies for all of our weekend activities.
This day started at 1:30 A.M. Mom was struggling to get up to the toilet. I heard her on the baby monitor in my room and went down to help. She has been having a lot of muscle and joint pain. So I massaged her back and got her settled back in after she used the bathroom. Her legs are getting very weak now and I didn’t feel comfortable leaving her alone. So I opened up the recliner and went back to sleep.
I heard Joe leave at 6 and then prayed until I got the dogs up to walk at 7.
By 10 I was t the office for staff meeting. (Kristine was home with Mom today. I am so grateful for extra hands).
At noon a group of us hosted some missionary friends from China for lunch.
Then Joe and I braved the weather to Walmart to pick up pillows for Brenda’s bed. She flies in tomorrow to help with Mom for the next few months.
By 5:30 the storm had really picked up, but we were home for supper and tucked in for the night.
After supper I walked the dogs and then settled in to write for a bit.
Now I am ready for my final prayers and sleep. Life is not a sprint for me. It has become, is becoming a daily marathon. I think I need to get in better shape.
IS YOUR LIFE MORE A DAILY MARATHON OR A DAILY SPRINT?
It is a universal truth that we humans come from stories and we are moving into story. All of our lives are made up of the mingling of many stories. We are books that tell of the intersection of lives and the conflicts and wonders those intersections create.
You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. Psm. 139:16
I have noticed this common truth about the people I have worked among, that life flows from the stories we tell ourselves and each other. We live until we stop telling our stories. We grow until something comes along which causes us to stop making our stories before ourselves and others. As soon as we stop adding new chapters to the book of our lives we begin to die.
There are signs that we have stopped the authoring process. When we decide that the story is done, when we decide there is nothing more to add we stop trying to make more story and we just begin rereading the story that was. We begin to live in the past and only the past.
One of the great dangers of our society today is that so many people who should be making stories are just sitting and watching other people’s stories. It is one thing when a ninety year old stops telling their story. It is quite another when a twenty something gets so wrapped up with Facebook or Twitter or Instagram that they stop telling their own story.
I guess this post is an encouragement to people of any age. One of the great keys to life is to not let anything stop you from adding a new chapter to your story. Whatever is happening to you…around you don’t let the roadblocks stop you from adding something new to the book of your life. Keep making story. Keep living!
WHAT ARE THE ROADBLOCKS TO YOUR NEXT CHAPTER? HOW COULD YOU CHANGE THOSE ROADBLOCKS INTO THE NEXT DEVICE THAT PROPELS YOUR STORY FORWARD?
Amanda had a meeting of her cohort of women ministers.
Meanwhile I watched Sevy.
When Amanda got home, she and I bounced back and forth between keeping an eye on Sevy in the playroom and cleaning the front office in preparation for Brenda’s arrival on Wednesday.
Mom’s health has reached a place where we are beginning to need the extra hands (even with everyone residence). So Brenda is coming home on a quasi-leave of absence/ fund raising tour.
Sunday morning has begun as most Sundays do with a few hours of prayer in preparation for the on-line service. Then morning chores: shoveling snow, setting up pills for the week, walking and feeding the dogs, making the coffee and getting Mom up and ready to meet the day.
The air pressure has set off Mom’s arthritis so it is a Motrin and Aspercreme morning ( the type of day that is becoming most common for her recently). She seems to be settling in well now, though the pain was bad enough to bring tears first thing this morning.
Amanda is setting up for her children’s on-line meeting at 9. I am getting ready for the morning service at 10. Joe is doing pre-approval paperwork for a home loan and Kristine is out cleaning off the cars from the five inches we got last night.
So… happiness…activity. I am pretty happy, but I would say it’s not just any activity that makes me feel that way but activity that builds family…activity that makes a difference.
I missed yesterday’s posting time. It just got busy. That is always my excuse…. I got too busy. At some point I have to stop making excuses about the things I say I want and just do them.
Today I am answering the question from NOOM entitled, “EXPRESS YOURSELF PT. 2”
JOURNAL ABOUT A DAY IN YOUR FUTURE LIFE, WHEN YOU ARE LIVING FULLY AND CONFIDENTLY. THINK ABOUT THE QUALITIES YOU SEE IN YOURSELF AND HOW YOU ARE INTERACTING WITH OTHERS AND THE WORLD AROUND YOU. HOW DO YOU FEEL? HOW DO YOU WANT TO BE SEEN BY THE WORLD?
I was just talking with my daughter, Melanie, today about some things I am praying into for change during our annual fast which starts tomorrow.
I am praying for increased dedication to losing weight and to increasing may flexibility. I have a lot of muscle and joint page now. Stretching really helps. I get busy (there it is…my go to excuse). Losing weight will also help significantly… I know it. I say I am too busy to meal plan (and again). So I see that one of the changes I am praying in to my heart is that I stop feeling too busy. Some of it is just about addressing the lie (the stronghold) that I am too busy.
I also have to pray about what I should stop doing.
On that day in the future I will wake up to a fully scheduled day…but I will not be stressed about it. Nor will I rush to get into my day but I will rise to a slow, constant and intentional pace. I will make the breakfast I planned the day before and I will spend time in prayer and then in stretching.
As I launch into the day I will work according to my schedule and pray according to the bells (on my phone that remind me when it is time to pray and study the Scripture). The people around me will be aware of the lifestyle I live and will let me live it, knowing that I am a better pastor and leader and man of God because of it.
Tuesday is the end of my week. Wednesday is my Sabbath. I am still trying to figure out what Sabbath should look like in my life. It is a day of rest, but more than that it is a day of a different rhythm. I am fighting with myself to figure out whether writing is part of that different rhythm. Is it work? Is it relaxation? Is it work that relaxes me?
Anyway, yesterday I tried the day without writing (although I still did my daily video for the other blog so I am not sure it was really a good test). I like writing. I missed it, but honestly, I was so tired I am not sure I had the brain space for it anyway. Even my prayer and Bible time were spent mostly in a staring stupor.
I was in the Book of Deuteronomy so I am not sure that helped either.
But the real weariness came from my “busy days of ministry ” Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.” Sunday is my preaching day. This week I preached us down a rabbit hole which is always more exhausting than sharing direct from the notes.
I said yesterday that this year I will be working on my weight, strength and flexibility…in short my physical health. I actually started working on this a year ago. 2023 showed little progress in this area. I had a net weight loss of 3 pounds. It’s not nothing, but it’s close.
My chosen weight loss vehicle is NOOM, well at least it is the parts of NOOM that I like or find easy to accomplish. Therein lies the problem. I realize that I have not committed to the work. Part of the suggested work with NOOM is that you publicize your work, make yourself publicly accountable. SO….this is me making myself publicly accountable.
This morning I started a lesson entitled “Express Yourself Pt. 3”. It called for me to answer questions about how I felt about “Express Yourself Pt. 1”. Well, I never did Pt. 1 so I cannot do Pt. 3 (no I didn’t do Pt. 2 either but we will save that for another blog).
EXPRESS YOURSELF PT. 1 asked me to write down 5 things about myself that I really liked regardless of my size and shape. SO HERE WITHOUT COMMENT ABOUT HOW I FEEL ABOUT HOW I LIKE MYSELF IS MY LIST OF FIVE THINGS.
2023 is history. Here is my favorite picture from the last year.
This is a picture of night time at The Vicarage during a full moon. I was pleasantly surprised by the filter edits I was able to impose on the original.
I am setting my sights on 2024 now. I am praying close into what God will give me for the year ahead. I already know my word for the year…”PREPARE”. I am asking now what I should use for filters on the raw material God gives me so that I might be prepared for God’s best outcome.
I know I am going to be working on my weight, strength and flexibility.
Me on day 1
I know I am going to be working on my administrative capabilities.
I know I am going to be working on my writing again.
I know I am going to be preparing for some big changes at The Vicarage which will affect me spiritually, emotionally, and practically.
I know there are opportunities and challenges in my pastoral work that I need to get a better understanding of.
I know there are coming changes in The United States and the Earth which I need to understand better.
I know God is about to move in our church in some new, exciting and challenging ways.
I know God is about to move in our region in some new, exciting and challenging ways.
Notes From the Vicarage 