Like many who I have preceded and many who will follow, I had one of the "those weeks." Things started off badly, and with a few exceptions, got worse.
The week started with a major blow up between two of the leaders in the church were I am currently serving as the "Consulting pastor" (read here "Interim Pastor for a more familiar term). Well, over the course of three days, multiple phone calls and more than a few emails the situation seemed to right itself and a level of harmony returned.
My week at the seminary was not unusual nor even particularly stressful; just a typical busy week and I was pretty tired by the end. Friday started off well enough, a good and profitable meeting with the church leadership, and later I got a report that my surgically repaired shoulder was doing fine and that I would not need any additional follow-ups. I was looking forward to a little mindless rest on Saturday; college football in the morning and the LA Kings hockey home opener on Saturday evening.
Well, things began to go downhill rather quickly. Friday evening I was informed that two other church leaders had an even more major blow up and it was unlikely that it would repair itself anytime soon. So, multiple emails and phone calls (which carried into Saturday) continued to be front burner items as I worked on how we were going to have a functional and God-honoring church service on Sunday.
Well, my hopes for a restful Saturday started off well enough, LSU was losing to Florida, Oklahoma was losing to Texas and Kansas State was beating Kansas (I'm not really a K-State fan, but a seminary student who used to live with my wife and I is, and he, his father and brothers were there watching the game on their annual "Man Trip" which was also going to include their going to the Kansas City Chief's game the next day. BTW, this is one of the best family traditions I've run across in some time).
The phone calls and emails from Friday's episode continued and consumed several hours of the day. In the meantime, LSU came back and won, Texas faded and Oklahoma won, and Kansas came back and beat K-State. (To further spoil my friends' weekend, the Chiefs lost the next day as well). I also felt badly for a seminary colleague, as his favorite team, Nebraska got pummeled by Missouri.
Well, I was certain that my day would get better as the USC Trojans were playing the woeful Stanford Cardinal (who were missing their starting quarterback). I readily admit that there is some remaining perversion in my soul wherein the entire day would have been repaired and the gloom dissipated if the Trojans ran up the score and won by about 50 points. Well, that didn't happen. Stanford, the last team to beat USC at home about 6 years ago, beat them again with a last minute touchdown and the SC quarterback, John David Booty, broke the middle finger on his throwing hand. Even Ohio State won! Which assured them of moving ahead of USC in the polls.
Hopefully, I thought, the Kings would not let me down. And, in this case things started off well. They were up 3-1 against St. Louis and their rookie 19 year old goalie was playing great. But in the third quarter, the defense quit playing, the captain and defenseman Rob Blake played like he was 78 instead of 38, and even Bernier could not stop all of the great chances the Kings allowed. They lost 4-3.
Sunday also began well. At the church where I am the interim pastor, I am preaching a series through the book of Titus and was at the section in chapter one dealing with the qualifications for godly church leadership (God does in fact have a sense of humor and an inerrant providence as to the timing of the ministry of the Word in His churches). The church has two services and after preaching twice I was pretty thoroughly spent. If you've never preached (or preached two sermons back to back) it is both an exhilarating and exhausting endeavor. However, God was honored and pleased to use a weak (and in many ways exhausted) vessel. Complicated by the fact that on this day my knees were constantly reminding me of their complaint about my youth, where I often engaged in activities that had caused them to require surgical repair on several occasions. The response to the service was excellent and many encouraging things are going on in the church. The encouragement was followed by a few emails later in the day as well.
I got home and feel asleep, awaking just in time for my beloved Green Bay Packers to play the Chicago Bears. Now I have been a Packers fan, essentially since I could walk. I was certain that my weekend, sports-wise, would be salvaged. The Packers went up 7-0 with Bret Farve looking great. But I should have known that something was wrong. At game time (for a night game) it was 80 degrees at Lambeau Field on the first Sunday in October! Well, they could have been up 21-0 by the end of the first quarter, except two fumbles by the wide receiver (after making big gains), and other missed opportunities allowed the Bears to stay in the game. Despite a halftime lead of 20-7, the Packers lost the game.
Well, I stumbled off to bed a few hours later and had a nightmare that Ned Colletti, the general Manager of the Dodgers, had traded Matt Kemp and James Loney to the Reds for Ken Griffey Jr and Adam Dunn to bring a veteran presence to the club. Waking up in a cold sweat at that prospect I also awoke with a severe migraine (I get those once in a while).
After taking medication that removes the pain (but renders me incapable of driving or operating dangerous machinery), I was reading about the shooting in Crandon, WI on the internet. This is where an off-duty deputy sheriff had gone berserk and killed several people before he was killed himself. My brother-in-law, is pastor of a good evangelical church in the small town. It's the type of town where everyone knows everyone. His church had become the center for gathering for news the day of the tragedy and for counseling and consoling today and likely for days to follow. He will undoubtedly officiate at many of the funerals that will be held in the next week or so. He has already acted as the spokesman for the family of the young man who did the shooting. My brother-in-law is a unique guy; he's on the local school board and an assistant coroner in the county, along with being the pastor and, by all accounts, has a great ministry in that city.
As I was praying for him and the situation there this morning, I realized that I didn't really have such a bad week after all.
Posted by Narnia3 at October 8, 2007 3:49 PM | TrackBack