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Five years ago I was writing daily. I had managed to finish a book (never published but I is finished). I was also blogging daily and managing to post thoughts daily.

Then I took on the role of lead pastor at Cornerstone Church. I knew when God brought me to this choice that writing was going to take more of a back seat in my life. I did however think that I would still manage to write daily….That has not happened. Don’t get me wrong I still write A LOT or at least I produce a lot of content. I have managed to keep a daily devotion going for most of those five years Facebook and here at WordPress. And this last year I have managed to increase my content creation quite a bit, but I have not been able to return to the daily writing schedule.

I am learning that there has ton be a new rhythm for writing.

Life has changed. My life rhythm is completely different now. It is better and more consistent in so many ways. That said, I have struggled with black and white thinking about my writing for all these last years. I told myself if I could not write daily then I just had to give it up.

I heard somewhere that good writers have to write every single day or they will never succeed. I struggled with that thought for a long time.

But something has changed in me. I am learning to hold opinions more loosely these days.

I cannot write daily, but I can schedule in a few days when I can write and practice this skill. So that is what I am doing. I am scheduling time in each week when I can sit for an hour or two and do the administration of writing. Its not everyday but it is still time well spent.

TELL ME WHAT IS YOUR WRITING SCHEDULE LIKE?

I remember the first time I felt like an adult. I was thirty-five. I was married and had three teen-agers, but it was the first time I actually felt like I had moved from childhood into adulthood. I couldn’t find a rhyme or reason for why my mindset suddenly changed back then. Honestly, until I suddenly felt like an adult I didn’t know I didn’t feel like an adult. For the most part I was acting like and adult. I was paying bills. I owned a house. I was working hard. But not until I was thirty-five did I realize I had the position of an adult… the authority of an adult. It was the first time I felt like I was ready to take on life. The first time I felt like I could take on life and life didn’t just have to happen to me.

Something is changing again. It is just as strange and unexpected this time as it was when I was thirty five. This time I am moving from adulthood into feelings of being an elder.

Maybe it is my mother’s passing, maybe it is that I am entering my fourth year as a lead pastor, maybe it’s that all my grandchildren are now talking and the last of them is potty training, maybe it’s that the children of the children I had in nursery Sunday School are now getting ready to graduate, maybe it’s a lot of things, but I am beginning to feel old. I am feeling these days like an elder.

I guess I am one. There is more snow on the chimney now than soot. I feel it in my bones. I feel it in my energy level. I feel it like a new power in my soul. There is weakness in it…and strength.

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com

I am feeling my age in ways I was told to expect (but refused to accept). I can’t seem to do what I once did as easily as I once did it. I feel weaker, but I also feel a new kind of strength, an assurance, a wisdom, a grace I have not had before that makes me feel that I can do just about anything. I just have to begin learning how to do it differently and maybe a little more slowly.

So how about it? What advice would you give to this new old guy?

Notes From the Vicarage

A minister's family living in a micro forest garden

MANAGING THE WRITING SCHEDULE 2026

FEELING LIKE AN ELDER