Getting Stuff Done

Today is a day for crossing off items on the to-do list. Most of these are domestic things like hooking the dryer up to the dryer vent (overlooked by the house owners for some reason) and raking the leaves on the lawn, but there also some church things to do--I have an appointment this afternoon at the church and have been here for the last few hours doing random things like answering e-mails and reading an interesting article about the current state of the Evangelical movement. I'm actually glad to hear that the movement's political interests are evolving into something that reflects more of a social Gospel (HIV/AIDS, Health Care, and so forth).

Last night Betsy woke me up because I was moving around too much as I slept. I told her that I was dreaming about some event at church and that Della and I were putting out tables. I remember actually being annoyed that I would have a dream about something as mundane as setting up tables for a church event! Alas, I have these kind of dull dreams all the time. I'm sure I've probably even dreamed of sitting at my computer writing e-mails!

I'm still thinking about the sermon I gave on Dedication a week ago. It was nice to get that preaching sweet spot with the congregation, and I really hope that I can do it again this Sunday. Doing so requires getting into the right head/soul/body place, and that means manipulating interior states. In a lot of religious traditions adepts spend a great amount of time learning to master themselves in this way, but mainline Christians have ignored the need to do so, I'm afraid.

I'm in a bad mood. I made a rookie-pastor mistake and agreed to take a meeting on my day off.... at 4.30 no less! And when I should have tried to reschedule I instead thought, "it won't be so bad." So this is something like my 14th straight day of coming to church (last Monday I spent five hours or so on that wedding). And so by the time Sunday rolls around I will have done 20 straight days of coming into work. Granted, not all of those were full days, but still, the number is depressing. No wonder I'm grumpy today. Like I said, rookie mistake. This upcoming Monday is going to be bulletproof. I'm also going to try to get this Saturday off....

-t