Sabbath Monday: Recharging

This past week was full of long days and not so easy ministry. I’ve been looking forward to today, my day off, though I have a million things to do.  One thing I’ve learned as an introvert is that my recharging, Sabbath time is precious, so some stuff simply might not happen. Oh well! It’ll wait for another day.

Last week was long and rough so much so that I missed blogging on Friday and I had a good idea for a post too! Sigh….Every evening last week I had something, whether it was with friends or church. Which is great I mean, ok, the idea of an 8 hour meeting once a month doesn’t appeal to me but when you’re asked (not nominated) to sit on the association’s board for care of the church and those going through the ordination process, one accepts . (I also found it ironic that I now sit on this board as I had a hard time getting through them on my journey towards ordination…that’s another blog post).

This week was so rough that by the time Friday came around I almost said “No” to having dinner with a friend who was in town because I was exhausted. I’m so glad I went to dinner though! I crashed hard when I got home and slept in on Saturday but seeing her and her family was fabulous.

Yesterday I was up at 4am. Bleh…. I was at church by 7am, doing final prep on the children’s ministry stuff, the new program I blogged about a few weeks ago. Then I had to lead worship and stay to play as it was Rally Day. I had envisioned crashing on the couch and falling asleep when I got home. It didn’t happen. I blame the 4 large cups of coffee I had in the morning, which is a lot for me. Instead I had lunch then scrapbooked on the book I recently started this weekend.

Back to church that morning…

The place was packed, which left me wondering, “Where were all of you this summer?” The choirs – young and old – sang about “marching in the light of God” and made a wonderful noise with drums. I got chills when everyone sang the opening hymn.

Then there was lunch and a bouncy house and Pastor Amanda went home to scrapbook.

That evening I headed back for youth group…both youth groups.

15 junior high youth showed up…15! 11 of them 6th & 7th grade boys. I think I’ll have my hands filled this year. They ran around the church playing hide and seek, trying to find 2 boys who hid in plain sight in the dark. LOL

Then 15 high school showed up for a town-hall sort of meeting. 15! By 9pm I was spent. Plus, my brain is going a mile a minute with ideas for the high school group. Which caused me to stay up late watching the new Stars Wars. (So is Rey the cousin of Kylo Ren or his sister? Is Rey the daughter of Luke Skywalker? I can’t believe I’m questioning this again, though I clearly did not get the answer the first time I saw the movie.)

Needless to say the beginning of the new church program year also means I relearn the Art of Sabbath. I’m pretty good at it but when I have weeks where I’m putting in 13+ hour days, I need reminding to take a break. Perhaps that’s why I scrapbooked yesterday instead of napping. Perhaps I needed to be creative and be lost in thought for a bit on a busy Sunday. I’ve left my scrapbooking stuff out with no intention of putting it away this week. I hope it sit there as a reminder to me to take a break.

And so I head into Monday, well continue into Monday…Recharging for the new week that promises to be just as busy, though at least I get to eat dinner at home.

Take time to recharge and Sabbath, Friends. It’s important.