Traction

As the second week of October begins, I find myself finally getting some traction.   Dad's illness and death overtook me and really swamped me as far as "normal" life and ministry go.  Emotionally I am still recovering, but schedule-wise things are getting back to normal.  That includes the blog.

To be honest, the biggest challenge with all these things is not time, but time management.  To say that I haven't had time to get things done really misses the point.  We make time for what we want.  A blog post can take as little as ten to fifteen minutes and a day is rarely so busy as to preclude fifteen minutes to write.  I just don't use it.  Sometimes this is legitimate.  When I have been so consumed with these other events in my life, I haven't felt up to trying to put together thoughts for the blog.  Other times though, I am busy using my time for escapism pursuits.  Yesterday Nate preached about how we often seek peace through world escapism.  That is me often times.  My preferred escapism  includes junk food and watching tv/computer.  While not the worst thing I've ever done, there are more effective ways to deal with both my emotional exhaustion as well as my time.

So I'm gaining traction.  I'm back to the blog, I'm planning ahead and working on the fall series at church, I'm updating websites and getting other projects moving again.  One major, overarching goal I have for this fall is to make my work time more profitable by further disciplining myself and what I get done.  There is so much more I could do without getting stressed and overwhelmed, if I just was more focused and disciplined.  I have been making progress and am going to work to make even more this year.  Feel free to ask me how I'm doing and hold me accountable.

The projects I'm working on right now include: annual camp report (usually 20 pages), small group study for church, next sermon series, evening service series, 4 primary mentoring relationships, church organization meeting planing and preparation, overhaul and reorganize home office.

You can ask how I'm doing on this stuff too.  :)  If you see a week go by and no blog post, feel free to give me a nudge.  I'm excited about what God is teaching me and the work He has been doing in my life through the events related to Dad.  Now to live the lessons learned.