Monday, March 5, 2012

The Reality of Study Days

Mondays .... I love them! They are my sermon and study day. Can you picture the quiet contemplation as I search God's heart and study the Word? Quiet music in the background ... reference books spread across my desk .... pages of notes and thoughts .... somehow it never is quite the way that I hope it will be.

For instance, this morning I made a 7:30 run to the post office where the box was jammed with mail. From there I headed to the church. I want to give you an idea of what it is like to just get from the car to the church. I grab my briefcase (weighs about 30 pounds) and put it on my shoulder, then I grab my backpack which has my exercise clothes, my purse, the sack that has my lunch in it and then grabbed with stack of mail which I tried to balance on top of the bags I was carrying. While staggering to the church under this load I was searching for the front door key out of the 50 some keys on my ring. all the while Hope Puppy is dancing around my feet is sheer excitement and threatening to upend the whole thing.

But I finally make it in and staggered to the church office where I sorted mail, listened for messages and went through everything that was put in my box on Sunday. Then I grab my briefcase once again, my backpack, purse and lunch and head to my office in the other end of the church. By the time I am trying to unlock my door my phone is ringing and as I sprint to the phone I am dropping lunch, sacks, bags and briefcase. Hope Puppy is still jumping up and down at my feet and impeding any real forward progress I am making. Of course by the time I get to the phone they have hung up and then it is time to hand up the backpack, stow my purse, pull out my computer form briefcase and do a quick check of my e-mail for anything that has to answered before I begin my nice quiet day of study.

It is while I am answering the 15 e-mails I received overnight that I get my first visitor of the day. By the time I waved goodbye to them and finished my e-mails more of the morning had disappeared than I really wanted.

But I pulled out my Bible and looked up my Scripture reference, put on some nice Gregorian chant music and began to think about what the Scripture passage was saying to me. And that is when the next visitor came in. Sigh .....

Since then I have studied, been instant message several times, fielded several phone calls and generally tried to arrange my studying around everything else that is going on. I have to admit that it is days like today when I really, REALLY, miss having a secretary in the office. It was nice to have someone to run interference for me on Mondays.

However, with all of that complaining and whining being said, the thing I know is that God will still speak to me and the message will come together. Perhaps not in the quiet contemplative way that I would most like, but in the way that is reflective of life.

And I guess that sermon preparation built out of life is probably .... a very good thing.

Just Connie

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