Doing the same job for thirty years or so can lead to a loss of enthusiasm on occasion.  Most people no longer labor at the same position for years on end.  Our grandparents did settle into a single position for decades way back when.  Most adults today change jobs or even entire careers once if not multiple times.  I read recently of retired coaches who burned with a passion for a lifetime then suddenly retired when their fire burned out.  This is not about boring jobs or hard times but it is about how we approach what we do.  Doing the same thing for years even after we lose interest is not uncommon.  Just having a steady income replaces that desire to matter in our world.  It does happen.  But my journey is not yet at that point.

We studied a single book of the Bible to open this year.  1 John served as our beginning series for the last nine weeks or so.  Dealing with a single book has advantages in what I do.  Perhaps the best thing is you always know where you left off and where you pick up the following week.  Enjoying your preparation is always key to making any sermon much less single sermon come alive.  A downfall is when you draw to a close there are just as many studies you could go back to deliver.  By then it is time to move on to a new set of sermons to bring.  One pastor that I knew would outline an entire year of messages long before they were made public.  Such a discipline is beyond me.  My preference is to do two months or so at the most before changing topics.  So that is what we are doing now.

Lent is the time of the Christian calendar when we look forward to Easter.  Now we as Baptists do not traditionally make a big deal out of this season.  I don't make it anything official but there is an awareness of this observance in the back of my mind.  Some years I will take the lectionary to follow along with the suggested scriptures each week.  Going in a new direction kept coming to my mind the last few weeks while thinking and praying.  So this year our focus will be on grace.  We may use a few of the texts found in the lectionary guide to worship.  But we will not be tied to its progression.

Starting out on a new adventure in preaching still excites me.  Comparing it to planning for a game in the athletic field would be a good analogy.  My heart and mind will still race as I gather the topics or scripture to study each week.  Maybe there is a smidgen of creativity in me that gets my motor going at the start.  Let me be honest to say that where it often breaks down is in developing the overall idea for the series.  Just saying that the topic is grace may strike a chord among the regular church member but it may not get to my purpose.  I would love nothing more than to do better at this.  But the point of all of this is to say the excitement is still here.  That is a sign of life.  When that spark fades is when I know it's time to shut it all down.  For now we will just keep churning out studies which will keep the fires burning.

Bro. Trey