To my tier-two bros, Christ be with you. As I’ve been very clear about on this blog and with each of you directly, I’m enjoying my time off school. But, when school resumes I want to be diligent to post daily as a primary part of my accountability. It’s been said that “Measurement is the first step that leads to control and eventually to improvement. If you can’t measure something, you can’t understand it. If you can’t understand it, you can’t control it. If you can’t control it, you can’t improve it.” (H. James Harrington) And I agree that measuring something is key to understanding and improving. So, I will measure my days, especially then.
Until seminary resumes for me, I still want to write to you. I want to stay in the habit of answering, “How do you feel about how you spent your day?” (Beyond the other scopes of this blog – which seems ever expanding from this vantage point.)
To answer the question, I feel very good about these four days in question. On Friday, I went to work in the morning and attended to my office. In the day, I was running errands with Hayley who hosted a cookbook club even that evening – during which, I went to Dalton’s house for pizza and cashflow and risk with Dalton, Charlie and Victor. It was an especially good night as those three relationships are ones I want to intentionally foster and I think sharing food and games as well as car rides and conversation did that. Saturday, is oddly blank in my memory although I’m sure it was filled with preparations for the following day (including to-do list item: Prepare advent Sunday school material). Sunday, we worshiped in Sunday school as we finished the advent season’s readings together. In service, the children and our choir both sang songs of worship over our congregation in addition to Congregational singing and a sermon. Afterwards, Hayley and I hosted a Christmas party at the Church for a dozen friends. Monday, the 20th, I ran errands for Hayley, cleaned and packed with Hayley, met via Skype with Ron, attended a birthday party honoring Tim, and ended my day in Cumming, GA with Hayley’s family. Today, I went to the storage unit and made [very little] headway on pictures before finishing up Christmas shopping with Hayley, finishing reading discovery documents, and preparing sweets for my family’s Christmas celebration.
I love being where I am. Hayley’s family is super good at being family and they’re really good at letting me do family with them. I’m not totally sure why we don’t live here and try to bring Samantha and Daniel too. I know for now it’s because we’re called to Crosspath’s music ministry and I’m in school… Also, it’s unlikely that I’ll find work in the area given my field of graduate studies, but I can hope… and I do. I’d love to persuade Samantha and Daniel to move down, keep a place for Mitch and Lori, persuade Josh and Tim to come in a few years and partner in ministry and worship with me here after they finish their schooling and as they move into “the golden years of their careers”, help Hayley to reconnect with high school friends (especially Kristen), and put down roots as we begin to parent another generation of worshiping believers.
Let’s not take too much stock in that last paragraph, because I’ve often/long been an idealist caught up by grand visions of flourishing positive relationships. Therefore it’s likely that I’ll be in Florida in less than a week wondering why I’m not more involved in my extended family’s lives… Maybe visiting them can/will be part of the long term vocation… Anyway, there’s been far to many ellipses for me to risk continuing to write much longer. So, I’ll wrap up.
My bros, I hope your holiday preparation is going well as it’s coming to an end. Let’s “remember the reason for the season” and make much of our King this Christmas. Maybe a gospel reading or two?
For anyone reading: Have you ever read a gospel in one sitting? What prompted you? Was there any difference in your experience of the content?
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