Back in the Saddle Again

Have you missed me?  It’s been about a month since I’ve had a moment to sit and reflect on the whirlwind of activities:  saying goodbyes, relocation, saying hellos, relearning how to be a sub-contractor with a parsonage, unpacking boxes, missing boxes that haven’t arrived yet (like my theological library, so you can imagine my pain), preaching three Sundays now (three very different services each Sunday), conducting a wedding, assisting in a funeral, administering a baptism, receiving a new member, attending to pastoral care crises . . . I’m sure you get the drift.

This week is no different.  Spent most of yesterday with a family who lost their 54-year-old wife/mother/sister to cancer, followed by a Worship & Arts Ministry meeting.  Today Randy and I will meet with the bereaved families to plan funeral services for her and a former mayor and House of Delegates member—one Friday, one Sunday.  We have a two-day staff planning retreat tomorrow and Thursday.  Besides the funeral Friday for the 94-year-old pillar of the community and church, I’ve got a wedding rehearsal, followed by a wedding on Saturday.  Sunday we start all over again (I’m in charge of an Imagine No Malaria time with the combined Children’s Sunday School). 

Thus is ministry.  This is not victim talk. I want no sympathy, as I am thrilled to be useful to God’s ministry here.  My mother, bless her heart, is concerned that I get enough rest.  I couldn’t put any of these important tasks aside—my heart would break to do so.  To thus I was and am called, and I am in my element, with God’s full grace and mercy!

Not all of our weeks will be so busy.  Like Elijah, God will provide the respite and nourishment needed for the moment, and self-care will happen.  The running joke has been “Hey, pastors work only one hour a week, so what’s the big deal?”  The humor helps, but the love, warmth and compassion undergird it all.  And when the tears, pain and grief bubble forth, God sweeps in to cement us together.

As we lifted up last Sunday, we all want to know “Why?”  I suspect we will know in the bye-and-bye, but in the meantime, we just love.  And love.  And love again.

Thank you, my dear friends across the miles, and now here within spitting distance in Charleston.  Prayers among the Body of Christ lift us up, every one, and make us all as beautiful, filled with agape love and joy that the world just can’t understand.  Let’s pray that makes us attractive to those who need to hear the Good News this week, and always.

Grace and joy,

Julie