A HARD WEEK'S SUNDAY

"But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you." (I Peter 5:10)

As I write, I think of the Beatles' song, "It's been a hard days night, and I've been workin' like a dog...etc.".  My son is good at writing parody lyrics and COULD probably come up with the lyrics for a song called "A Hard Week's Sunday"!  Last week seemed like an unusually busy week and an unusually difficult week.  From my father, I have inherited the tendency to be a perfectionist.  Perfectionism is good, but it's bad.  My friend and mentor, the Rev. Dick Germaine says perfectionists long for the perfect world that existed before the fall of man.  I think that's true.  Perfectionists DO tend to achieve a lot of things and to excel, but they also are DEVASTATED when things do NOT turn out "perfect", and they can be excessively hard on themselves.  I don't think perfectionists are really happy people.  That's why it's got a good side and a bad side.

I am a stickler for "perfectionism" with my schedule.  When I accidentally "double book" something, and then have to let somebody down, it REALLY bothers me, and THAT happened this past week!

I hate when the bank makes a mistake in my savings account pass book and they DID this week.  They DELETED hundreds of dollars and listed an incorrect balance!  I discovered the error quickly, went right back to the teller, and insisted it be corrected, which it was.

I have a "decent"  amount of exterior painting work to be done at the parsonage.  That may surprise people since it's vinyl sided, but the front porch and some of the trim are PAINTED.  the paint is peeling and looks terrible.  I've tried to schedule days to "prep" for painting and for painting over the summer.  Virtually every day I have scheduled, it has rained.  I had thought about doing painting work this past Friday, and THAT was "out" due to weather.  I have also seriously thought about painting on this coming Tuesday or Friday.  Guess what?  The long range forecast for those days is RAIN!

I can't write much about this but I have a couple of people at the church right now who are disgruntled with me.  I don't think either one of them reads this blog, but even if they read this, I don't think it would matter.  The bottom line is, this caused some stress for me this week. 

I had a Board Meeting this past week.  I ran a Men's Fellowship meeting this past week.  I had several outside commitments this past week.  By Saturday night, I was four and a half days behind where I ABSOLUTELY HAD to be in my schedule!  (I STILL  am!)

You may have been able to tell if you read my last posting that last Wednesday I was kind of jolted by the criticism of how I describe myself and think of myself.  That may seem silly, but yes I WAS jolted by that.  Even so, I kind of "processed" the whole matter over a couple of days and got over it!

Friday was my daughter Rachel's birthday, and even aside from that, Friday was a VERY busy day and a very stressful day!

Last night, I was so tired I felt I could sleep 24 hours!  I wondered how I'd even function for Sunday morning.  I hate going into Sunday mornings like that!  I was kind of fearful I'd be "spaced out" today.  The church building took in SOME water from the rain, and I had to deal with that this morning, but it was far less than it could have been, thank God!

In spite of all that, we had a  fabulous Adult Sunday School class, and an even more fabulous service.  I honestly preached the strongest sermon I have preached this year.  It was NOT the sermon I'd planned!  I used NO notes!  (I have only done that once before.)  It ended up being an unusually powerful service.  Looking back on it, I'm surprised. 

People may wonder why I have such faith in God.  When you've had a very difficult, tiring week; when you feel like you barely have the strength to put one foot on front of another, and then when you go out and minister like that, and really, it's NOT "you", it's the power of the Holy Spirit, well, THAT'S EXCITING and that's PART of why I have such faith in God!

Incidentally, there was a family visiting our church this week.  It turns out they are from Rhode Island and the "Dad" is an Associate Pastor at an Assemblies of God church there.   Well, if HE liked the service, and he did, I guess that confirms it was good!