Thursday, April 17, 2008

This Week I...

What did you do this week? This week, I did several things.

This week, I …. Preached three times. I don’t always like the way a sermon turns out or the way I preached on a certain passage of Scripture. Occasionally I leave church thinking, “Wow, I should have done so much better.” But I like that God can take what is said, even when it is far less than perfect, and use it for his glory anyway. (Karla pointed out that last Sunday I said: “The fact of the matter is” three times during the course of the sermon. Hmmm? I told her, “Well, the fact of the matter is I wasn’t counting!” She said, “I was.”) In spite of using too many clichés, on Sunday lots (I mean LOTS) of people raised their hands or came to the altar indicating a need for God to work in some area of their life. Praise the Lord for his working!

This week, I …. Ate dinner with friends. I don’t like eating alone, but I love eating, talking, joking around a dinner table. Breaking bread (or in my case, a calzone at Old Chicago! Yum!) with friends is a good thing.

This week, I …. Paid my taxes. I don’t like paying taxes. Writing a check to Uncle Sam is one of my least favorite activities. But I like having clean water and safe streets and a stable government and all the things paying my taxes provides. And this summer good ol’ Uncle Sam will be sending out checks to us, so I guess that’s good too.

This week, I …. Attended the District Credential’s Board Meeting. I don’t like going to the Credential’s Board Meeting and taking a whole day out of my schedule to meet with ministers-in-training. But I like that we have a system that monitors and oversees the education and development of our soon-to-be ministers.

This week, I …. Received about a gazillion e-mails about Oprah and her new agey blah, blah, blah. (Okay maybe I haven’t received a gazillion, but I’ve gotten a lot.) I don’t like New Age blah, blah, blah whether it comes from Oprah or Oh My Goodness anybody else. But I like that people have recognized the blah, blah, blah for what it is.

This week, I …. Talked to a friend who is about to face a major health crisis. I don’t like that we live in a world where there is sin, sickness and tough things happen in life, but I like that we serve the One that said: “Take Heart, I have overcome the world!”

This week, I …. Led our Board Meeting. I don’t always like Board Meetings. There’s a reason I might occasionally (on purpose?) misspell it as “bored meeting.” But this week, we talked a lot about reaching our community and what we are doing and how we can do it better. It was a very good discussion among our leaders. We have a good church board.

This week, I … participated in our pastoral staff book review. Pastor Padraic picked the book this time: The Forgotten Ways: Reactivating the missional church by Alan Hirsch. It got us a ll talking and thinking about how we are doing ministry. I liked that. We have a great pastoral staff at Central… I like that too.

This week, I …. Recommended a former Centralite, former seminarian to a District Superintendant. I don’t like those conversations if I really don’t think the candidate is qualified, but I really like it when I know they will do a great job and build the Kingdom. This guy is the latter. He’s going to make a huge difference for God!

This week, I …. Worked on my lawn mower. I changed the oil and the blade. It’s ready to go. I don’t like mowing much. But I like that it’s getting warmer and the snow is gone and finally oh so finally maybe spring is here.

This week, I …. Hung out in a couple of hospitals. Going to hospitals isn’t always fun, staying in one is even worse. But I like knowing that the Great Physician is always on call. And we really can call out to God and God really does hear and answers prayers.

This week, I …. Shopped at my neighbor’s semi-annual Gear Garage Sale. I normally don’t like garage sales, but I like this one. New Shirts (with a teeny rip in the back) for a buck. Yippee! There were so many other Centralites there—I thought maybe we should take an offering and consider my neighbor’s garage and off-site venue for another worship service.

This week, I …. Waited for our out-of-town company to arrive at our house. I don’t like that the Queen of Clean (read: Karla) is turning my day off into a mowing, cleaning, scrubbing, doing a million “honey-do” jobs because “Rob we need everything perfect for our guests.” But I do like friends coming to visit.

This week, I … Spent some good time with the Lord, but I wish there had been more time. I don’t like it when I don’t make time or take the time for God, and I completely understand what good ol’ William Wilberforce was getting at when he said, “I must secure more time for private devotions. I have been living far too public for me. The shortening of devotions starves the soul, it grows lean and faint. I have been keeping too late hours.”

This week, I … Wrote an e-mail to the church and I didn’t know what to write, so I wrote about some of my likes and dislikes of what happened during the week. I hope that was OK.

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