Tired today. I feel like I can finally "let go" a bit--maybe that's dangerous, but it feels like I need to. Being up all night with MG last night and then working today compounds the fatigue, but I think there's some Advent/Christmas/first two months of a new job tiredness in this guy.
Church today was good--most Sundays have felt good since Beth and I started at NDPC in early November. A rager of a winter storm that dumped 1/2 inch of snow on Decatur Christmas Day compounded the day-after-Christmas-church-hangover, so today was a light crowd. But NDPC felt truly joyful--people sing, they laugh, they seem genuinely happy to see each other. I decided to ditch my sermon notes today and preach extemporaneously, which always feels better to me, but I'm usually too much of a perfectionist (coward?) to do it more often.
One "stranger" showed up in worship today--a guy in pretty rough shape who had just been discharged from Dekalb Medical Center up the street. Our congregation treated him like any congregation should--brought him in, fed him food and coffee, talked to him, and made sure he got where he was going after worship. I have a powerful image of a member of our church helping this guy put on a belt to make sure his pants didn't fall off. Pretty effortless for our group of churchfolk--that was probably the nicest thing about my day.
I have a few days of "downtime" this week. My better half and son are away with the in-laws, so I get lots of good father-daughter time with MG. She's really thriving right now--getting all big and plump like a Butterball. She needs to eat more by mouth, but it seems like the tube-fed calories are doing something right.
I'm also looking forward to disappearing for my week of annual study leave the first week of the new year. I missed it last year with MG's tumultuous first weeks, and I'm usually a happier person for having had the time away to think about my work and what my dreams and goals might be. Dreams? Goals? What are those?
No comments:
Post a Comment