Well, I come to the end of another week and feel as if I've left a lot of things undone.  I guess the main reason I feel that way is because I've left a lot of things undone.  That's the really challenging bit about the pastorate for me -- the enormous load of details that I have to keep track of.  Lot's of other types of work are like that -- lot's of details, lots of deadlines, lots of expectations.  The pastorate is not especially unique in this regard.  But it is certainly a charter member of that club.

I'm not a detail-oriented person, and so this aspect of pastoral work is particularly challenging for me.  And, I'm sure, particularly frustrating for my flock.  I've had to learn and hone the fine and honorable art of apologizing over the past 26 years of ministry.  I wish I hadn't needed to practice that art so often over those years, but I have.  I must also say that my apologies have been met mostly by brothers and sisters who have responded by exercising the holy art of forgiveness.  Not always, I'm sad to say, but mostly.

 Well, completed details or no.  I have a football game to attend now.  My son may play in it, and I want to be there.

I try to keep Monday's slow.  I have never really thought much of pastor's who moan about how tired they are after Sunday mornings.  It has always seem sort of self-promoting, as if to say, "Look at me!  Look at how hard I work!  Look at how much I pour myself (to my own depletion) into my ministry!"  And yet, I have to confess that by Sunday afternoon, I don't have much left in my energy tank.

And so, I tend to try not to schedule much for Sunday afternoons and evenings and for Monday's.  Of course, that's can't be avoided sometimes.  I have found that Sunday lunch and early afternoon works as a good time for training workshop, special appreciation events, and things like that.  But on the whole, I try not to plan too much for those times.

I am suspicious of my motives for that sometimes.  I know how easily I could use this as an excuse for indulging my innate laziness.  And so, I try to discipline myself to override my natural impulse to veto any suggestion for events, meetings, and the like for Sunday P.M.  I know that sometimes that is the right time to do certain things and that my resistance is sometimes simple self-indulgence.

A big part of the tiredness that I feel on Sunday P.M.s and Mondays comes from my strongly introverted personality.  I'm not especially shy any more.  I used to be, but I've worked through that a lot over the years.  And it has become very clear to me from my own experience that shyness and introversion are really two very different things.  My level of personal self-confidence has become less and less a problem in most settings.  But interacting with people is and always has been an energy depleter for me.  And Sunday mornings with the church are and should be high people interaction times.

So, Sunday mornings make me tired.  It's sort of surprising, then, that according to studies that I've read, the majority of pastors test out as introverts.

Anyway, having learned these things about myself over the past two and a half decades, I now try to keep Mondays for more of my alone work, my reading and writing, my praying and my planning.  I don't keep this as a hard and fast rule.  So, don't be afraid to plan something with me on Monday.  In fact, I plan to go and see someone who is ill at home later today.

But I am doing a lot of reading and writing today, and that will be very much replenishing for me.

Today is mostly an in-the-office day.  I've met with Ericka and Kristen for prayer, Bible study, and discussion.  We do that every Thursday from 9:30 to 11:00 or 11:30 A.M. God is blessing that, I find, even in our first two times together.  

I also finished up the bulletins this morning.  I try to have them completed by Tuesday of each week.  The choir needs the 11:00 A.M. service bulletin material by Wednesday at the latest.  But sometimes there are details to be finalized still on Thursday.  There were this week.

This afternoon I walked around the block and prayed for our neighborhood, that God would open it up for us and allow us to reach our neighbors, especially the children.  There are so many people living just feet away from our doors.  We should be reaching them with the gospel.  I want that very much.

I'm reading and studying for the sermon for Sunday.  What does it mean for us that God is "our Father Almighty"?  Check out Galatians 4:4-7.