I write about Stuff

stories of community being shaped by God, blog posts and books reviews, comment on current affairs

working title

2012

It was the oddest feeling, it didn’t sit well with me and yet I knew it was there. From a young age, I was encouraged to work, to work hard and not let employers down. Loyalty to employers only secondary to loyalty to family.
But there I was, barely there, functioning but not engaging. No that’s not true, I was engaging and performing but there was an emptiness. I spoke to a good friend about it a few weeks ago and worked out that it wasn’t where I wanted to be.
I had been told I was a “cornerstone,” but it wasn’t the right building for me. It made me lackadaisical.
I approached today differently, I chose to do this thing differently and it is different as a result.
What have I learned?
No matter if I have a heavy heart about something, go at it vigorously, with much enthusiasm ( not in Wesley’s sense of the word ) and with much fullness. It is a necessary task.
Last week I had many God conversations and although it was a good conversation, seed planting and fellowship it was not what was needed in my job.
More conversation with a wise man friend and aiming for balance this week.
It is not my unpaid work that suffers when I get paid for work, I shuffle all that around to suit everyone. It is the time I spend reflecting on this whole process when I stand amazed in His presence of what He wants me to do. It is the time I need to do the stuff, the preparation time, writing, reading, praying. So I cut down on research and spent more time in prayer.
I broke my record. I did 12 in an hour and in between each client I read three chapters of a book on grace by Gayle Haggard. It is teaching me some, but I feel like a voyeur looking in on someone else’s painful journey to forgiveness. There is no new revelation in it about grace, mercy and forgiveness. It is just a human’s tale of that journey. I don’t think I will read any more.
I also tried to balance on a beam and fell off. So like a fool I tried, again and again, each time falling off until I could do it all the way across with some teetering but not actually falling off.
I joke about having the work-life balance, but I have it too much on the life side. I wryly say I have no time to work. If I only had my time I wouldn’t be able to achieve all I do for The Lord with a bucket load of help from him. It really is more him than me.