Ouch…good ouch
Oct 31, 2005 Uncategorized Hodge Podge
//MOOD: Hmmm
//ITUNES: Holy Hold from the album “Pray Naked” by The Seventy Sevens
From scott… diagonally parked in a parallel universe: (via Monday Morning Insight)
ministers love to brag about how overworked they are.
it has been difficult for me to start this blog inasmuch as, of all the confessions i have made in this series, this one hits the closest to home. i have been grossly negligent in this area. for 20 years of ministry i have used this crutch to excuse all manner of laziness, poor scheduling, inadequate preparation and relational aloofness. and i’m not alone.
everything is work time. including blogging. and coffee with friends. and shopping and driving and phone calls and reading and praying and talking and writing and visiting and planning and napping and thinking and answering emails and surfing the net and going to the bank and reading the paper. many of you have full time jobs that you come home from in order to make it to the church on time for any number of reasons. i usually had a nice nap before the meeting because i would be putting in extra time.
on many levels it is an amazing life. you are your own boss. you can literally blow off weeks, even months, without anyone really knowing. all you need to do is be unavailable, look a little haggard and constantly whine about how busy you are and no one will know. trust me, i’ve tried it.
pastors love to point out how busy we are. we NEVER say that things are slack. pastors realize that people don’t think they work much and there is something ingrained in their psychie that must justify their existence. it is frustrating to have people constantly make fun of you for working “one hour a week”.
it is not as though some pastors do not get their hours in. many work chaotic shifts and are barraged by demands and complaints for which there is no obvious solutions. pastors complain that they are always working, which is an exaggeration, but even if that is true – they may be working but not always working hard. and frankly, a ton of pastors i know are just lazy. there is said it. i could give you lots of names.
my name would sometimes be on that list as well.
many pastors would react to reading this words. some are justified. others simply do not know or remember what it is like to have a real job. they live in a bubble of pseudo-activity and flexible scheduling. no one yells at them everyday at work. they don’t have to drive 2 hours to get to the job site. they don’t have to get up early, or pack a lunch, or listen to complaints all day. they can shut off their phone and not be fired. they don’t get disciplined for being 10 minutes late to work. they can deduct their mortgage from their taxible income. they can write off any activity or expense. they are the only one paid to be at a funeral.
this is a very one-sided blog but i have, on many occasions, bemoaned the struggles of the pastor’s life. it can be a very difficult vocation. very few people have, however, discussed the other side of the equation – the incredible perks, the lack of tangible accountability, the accolades, the tax breaks.
and right now i’m not even getting paid to blog.
I have actually been thinking about this a lot lately. How hard do I work? How hard do pastors in general work? There are a lot of things we do that can turn from good things into laziness.
For instance, hanging out with someone I am discipling is work. But when those meetings get longer and longer and we are just hanging out all the time…is that still work?
Sure, reading the latest book is work…but I would be reading that book whether I had this job or not.
Etc etc etc.
Once a year or so, I track my hours for a month or so and it is always an eye opening experience. I am blown away with the amount of time I spend doing certain things. I am in one of those seasons right now. And I am doing two things to guarantee accurate and honest appraisals of my time.
1) I am using Timebox to track my hours instead of writing them down myself, where it can be tempting to fudge them slightly.
2) I am giving them to Dan and Mark so they can give me feedback.
I know of a church that requires all of their pastoral staff to keep timecards. It’s tempting to me.
If Only
Oct 31, 2005 Uncategorized Hodge Podge
//MOOD: Green
//ITUNES: I Want You to Want Me from the album “10 Things I Hate About You” by Letters To Cleo
(Photo by Charles Rex Arbogast/Associated Press)
If only I had seen this before I went to work on my iPumpkin yesterday: White is the new orange when it comes to pumpkins:
Very cool illusion
Oct 31, 2005 Uncategorized Hodge Podge
//MOOD: Illusive
//ITUNES: One Evening from the album “One Evening – Single” by Feist
Thanks to Doug for this Very cool illusion:
Stephen & Martin
Oct 31, 2005 Uncategorized Hodge Podge
//MOOD: In Between
//ITUNES: Let’s Stick Together from the album “Down In The Groove” by Bob Dylan
I mentioned a few days ago that my friend Brent gave a great thought about Stephen’s stoning in a message I heard last week. He was talking about roadblocks to our faith and what to do when we encounter them.
First, he shared about Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego and how when they were thrown in the furnace for not worshipping Nebuchadnezzar’s statue in Daniel 3, God rescued them.
Then, he went to the example of Stephen and how he stood up for his faith. But this time, God didn’t rescue him. Instead, he allowed him to be dragged into the street and stoned to death. Here’s the passage:
Acts 7:54 The Jewish leaders were infuriated by Stephen’s accusation, and they shook their fists in rage. 55 But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed steadily upward into heaven and saw the glory of God, and he saw Jesus standing in the place of honor at God’s right hand. 56 And he told them, “Look, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing in the place of honor at God’s right hand!”
Acts 7:57 Then they put their hands over their ears, and drowning out his voice with their shouts, they rushed at him. 58 They dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. The official witnesses took off their coats and laid them at the feet of a young man named Saul.
Acts 7:59 And as they stoned him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60 And he fell to his knees, shouting, “Lord, don’t charge them with this sin!” And with that, he died.
Brent shared that this is the only time in the Bible that Jesus is pictured as “standing at the right hand of God.” He said that while Jesus did not rescue Stephen from being stoned to death, he stood because he was so pleased that Stephen did not back down.
Last night, I watched Luther. I have been wanting to see it for awhile. It struck me in a lot of ways. Again, it struck me that here was a man who would not back down. Here is an excerpt from his speech at the Diet of Worms:
Your Imperial Majesty and Your Lordships demand a simple answer. Here it is, plain and unvarnished. Unless I am convicted [convinced] of error by the testimony of Scripture or (since I put no trust in the unsupported authority of Pope or councils, since it is plain that they have often erred and often contradicted themselves) by manifest reasoning, I stand convicted [convinced] by the Scriptures to which I have appealed, and my conscience is taken captive by God’s word, I cannot and will not recant anything, for to act against our conscience is neither safe for us, nor open to us.
On this I take my stand. I can do no other. God help me.
Amen.
One of the other things that really struck me watching the movie last night was Luther’s passion for the Word. I think I take it so for granted that I don’t dig into it the way I should. I don’t treasure it the way I should. I don’t stand for it the way I should.
Then, hearing about Kyle Lake’s death this morning, I was struck with the extreme shortness of life. He was one year younger than me and POOF he died. I want my life to be characterized with following Jesus unabashedly like Stephen, Martin, and Kyle.
Kyle Lake
Oct 31, 2005 Uncategorized Hodge Podge
//MOOD: Reflective
//PODCAST: Coverville-051030-Tricks and Treats for your Halloween from the album “Coverville” by Brian Ibbott
OK, if you read Christian blogs this is all over the blogoshere, so this is probably redundant. But it bears repeating because I was stunned by it this morning. Especially in light of what I was planning on posting this morning. (Which I still will in a few minutes…)
Kyle Lake, pastor at University Baptist Church in Waco, Texas, was electrocuted when he grabbed the mic while in the baptismal at his church Sunday. Please take a few minutes and pray for his family. He leaves behind a wufe and three little kids.
Here’s the article from CNN.com: Pastor electrocuted while performing baptism – Oct 31, 2005:
iPumpkin
Oct 30, 2005 Uncategorized Hodge Podge
//MOOD: Spooky
//NOISE: Kids
We carved pumpkins tonight for Halloween, so I thought I’d wish everyone a Happy Halloween with a picture of my pumpkin:
OK…this pisses me off
Oct 29, 2005 Uncategorized Hodge Podge
//MOOD: Pissed
//TV: MSU 23 INDIANA 2
From NBC2 News Online:
Hurricane victims who wanted water had some difficultly finding it at a relief station in Clewiston Friday. The volunteer group running a supply center doesn’t like the company that donated the water, so they decided not to give it to those in line for help.
Twenty-two pallets of the canned water, distributed free by beer company Anheuser-Busch, bears the company’s label – and members of the Southern Baptist Convention refused to hand it out to those in need.
Resident lined up for miles to receive food and water at the distribution point. But the water was left on the sidelines by the Alabama-based group.
“The pastor didn’t want to hand out the Budweiser cans to people and that’s his prerogative and I back him 100-percent,” said SBC volunteer John Cook.
The SBC felt it was inappropriate to give the donation out, and they weren’t happy when NBC2 wanted to know why.
“Why do you want to make that the issue? That’s not the issue. The issue is that we’re here trying to help people,” Cook said.
Freakin’ amazing.
Well, at least I have found it within me to say something is terrible. That’s a good thing.
UPDATE: OK…I just read the update at the end of the article and it says:
UPDATE: Late Friday, as NBC2 was leaving Clewiston, we saw two members of the SBC handing out the canned water alongside the Red Cross.
Thank God for those two.
Wow
Oct 29, 2005 Uncategorized Hodge Podge
//MOOD: Undisclosed
//NOISE: Kids
Woman gives birth as son dies in same hospital:
At Jamaica Hospital Medical Center on Thursday, a woman gave birth to a son, delivered by Caesarean section. She did not know that during her recovery, elsewhere in the same hospital, she lost her oldest child, a 19-year-old deli worker who had been shot behind the counter by a man in a mask.
Praying
Oct 28, 2005 Uncategorized Hodge Podge
//MOOD: Praying
//PODCAST: Episode 4 A Porn Star Talks (featuring Moonshine) from the album “Dirty Little Secrets with Craig Gross and Mike Foster”
For those of you praying for my friend Dave’s mom, check out his his blog. He is live-blogging surgery updates. Thanks for praying.
Worth
Oct 28, 2005 Uncategorized Hodge Podge
//MOOD: Valuable
//NOISE: None
I have seen these all over so I thought I would give it a shot:
My blog is worth $29,920.62.
How much is your blog worth?
