Sunday is going to be odd for me.  You may remember a post prior to my illness about the number of consecutive Sundays when I was speaking.  My best guess then was about 160 Sundays in a row where I preached in my church.  We may be approaching about 180 now but that streak ends this week.  The feelings about that are weird since it's been such a part of my world.  A missionary will be speaking this week for a mission conference.  There will be another one that evening.  I keep thinking there is something missing from the last few days.  The hard part is knowing how to take advantage of the break.  So far there is some success and some failure.

Part of this week was spent doing pastor things.  One good thing is there wasn't the pressure of needing to do other stuff.  There are always visits to make, meetings to have and other duties that can get put aside with the weekly demands of research.  My guess is most ministers do the other stuff of the job with the sermon details somewhere in their mind.  They may not always tell you this but my hunch says it is true.  Being original is not something most ministers do naturally.  But it also could be that my case is unique in that struggle.  Most of us try to deal with the other aspects of our duty while balancing our time needed to get ready.  That is a never ending process.

You should also know there is guilt that runs through my mind this week.  Part of me feels like I should be keeping the streak alive.  Let me remind you that there are times when our feelings just lie to us.  I know this full well.  So one of my efforts is to skip the guilt to do things that are healthy in the long run.  For example, I made time today and will tomorrow to look ahead to the Sundays heading into Easter.  We will probably stick to Luke's gospel for our scripture as we look at various topics.  One of my biggest failures is in not making time to map out a few weeks of study.  I can change that this time.  Now it may not make the sermons any better but an attempt is being made.  There is also time to think about goals and issues of the congregation.  I will try to report on those in the very near future.

We can all use a change in the routine.  You probably don't even know how far in a rut that you are until you climb out.  Our problem is we enjoy our routine as it is safe and predictable.  We may say we like change but just wait until it happens to check your response.  Guilt, anxiety and other emotional cripplers may challenge us if we want to try something new.  It is always worth it to take on those feelings for the sake of new life.  God tends to do all of His work in a new fashion.  He seldom repeats Himself.  So take a walk on the wild side soon.  Break your normal schedule to see what He has in store.  You may be surprised to the point you don't move back into your rut.

Bro. Trey