Two Hours a Week

There’s a running joke in the Lions Club here that I, as pastor, only work two hours a week and have the cushiest job around.  I wish it were true–I’d really love a cushy job.

When I was in the office late yesterday afternoon, I realized a parent of one of our day care children was quite upset about something.  I don’t want to reveal any specifics here, but it meant an hour on the phone last night and a very early morning here to speak with her further.  As I sought clarification on what happened, she stormed out in much anger and has threatened to remove her children from our care.

Then I checked email. I’ve been in some dialogue with a woman who was very upset over one of the articles that came out in the Denton Record Chronicle several weeks ago, “The World is Still Around.”

She told me that a bundle of people were furious with me about it.  I offered to meet with them to discuss it, but was told that they had already made up their minds about it and about me and would not meet with me but that she herself was not that judgmental and wanted to discuss it.

I asked for a list of questions that she wanted answered. When I received the list this morning, I realized she wanted a whole graduate level course on the subject of eschatological theories and expectations.  Two hours later, I sent her what I could and suggested no further dialogue would be possible until she had done some independent reading on the subject.  Now she probably hates me too.

VBS needed to get fleshed out this morning (thank goodness for google chat, shared documents and email–we are well on our way), my sermon written, Bible study for tonight prepared, and I need and will spent some concentrated time in prayer for our youth and adult sponsors on mission this week.  And that will not even touch the pile on my desk.

The duplicator broke again.

It’s nearly noon and I never managed breakfast today–think I’d better consider lunch now.

And these are the easy things.

There’s the question of how to really be the church in the electronic age when we are bombarded with too much information and everything is fragmented and hardly anyone can actually sit still for the types of worship that have served us well for so long but  . . . our brains are changing and how is the church going to meet the challenge and still offer the words of Jesus and eternal lift to all?  Here’s a great article on what is happening to our mental processing skills.

There are the confidential issues brought to me for prayer, wisdom and hope of healing or help. The calls from people needing funds for housing, food, and utilities. The anguish of death and illness. The ache and emptiness of so many trying to face life with inadequate resources, without knowledge of God or hope of freedom from sin now and eternal life later, the economic devastation facing so many.  A woman sitting in my office last night, trying not to cry, asking if there were any jobs she could do for the church (answer:  yes, dozens of them, just none of them are paid).

Deep breath.  I serve in a microcosm of the world. A lot more anguish reaches God’s ears every single nano-second.

Time to give thanks.  Time to say, “Dear Lord, I lay these burdens down at Your feet and say, Thank You for offering to me, even to me, the way of salvation.”