In the Office

I have been in my office all day.  This is unusual for me since I often have to make a trip to one of our other locations or to visit a customer.  Today, it was inside all day with my computers and my phones.  I’m not sure that I liked it.

I did get lots of work done.  I’ve got my tunes from Live365 and I can wander into the kitchen to graze whenever I want.  It’s just kind of lonely.  It’s not that I didn’t communicate with anyone.  There were 26 incoming emails and 11 outgoing ones.  I dealt with just over 40 incoming and outgoing phone calls and 2 video conferences.   So I did talk to people (some of them for a long time)

I built one training video and got most of the way through building a presentation for a talk I need to give tomorrow night.

I never went outside the whole day.

My Office

Whirlwind Week, Training, Hutterites, Appreciation

It has been a crazy busy week.

Monday I had to go to the head office of the company I work for a couple of meetings.  The office is an hour and three-quarters from home.  I got back home in time for a quick supper and then drove to my class an hour and a half in the other direction.

Tuesday, I flew to Edmonton to do software training for a number of staff members there.  The trip allowed me to have supper with my daughter and her husband.   I enjoy teaching and my students were keen and appreciated the fact that I had come to them from so far away. The second day of the trip included a stop at one of our customers, a Hutterite colony.  That experience may be the topic of a future post.

Thursday at midnight, I arrived back in Toronto.  The company was putting on a dealer appreciation weekend at the airport hotel starting on Friday afternoon, so, I just stayed in town.  J got a ride with one of our local dealers and joined me on Friday evening.  From the company’s perspective, the weekend was a success.  I had to address the group a couple of times about my area of responsibility, which went well.    One fellow wondered if maybe I spoke in church from time to time since my delivery reminded him of the way his grandfather used to deliver sermons .

The company I work for is very secular, yet, they like to try to cover all the bases with their dealers and have in the past offered a prayer prior to meals.  Other companies that I have worked for have not done this.  Interestingly, I, the newest employee at the management level, am the one asked to say grace.  How that happened is a bit of a mystery, because, prior to the first time I was asked, I had not really talked much about my faith life.  This time, the prayer allowed for a “mini sermon” since the master of ceremonies invited me to the front to “bless the meal”.  I had the opportunity to point out that while I would ask for a blessing, it was actually God who would provide the blessing.  My words were appreciated by the practicing Christians in the room.

Interesting how God gives opportunities where none are expected.

Got home around noon on Sunday after most of a week away.

Sunday and Haggai

I had the privilege of leading our worship service today.  Our pastor is on holiday.  I have led services, complete with delivering my own sermon a number of times over the past five or six years.

It started with youth services.  Since I was a youth leader and did most of the teaching for the youth group, I was asked one year to prepare the message for their annual service.  Youth services are a great experience since the setting allows for more freedom than a regular morning service.  I would tie the message to power point slides and videos and actually present the message from the aisle rather than the stage.  This allows for more interaction with the listeners.

After our church split, leaving us with no pastor,  I was given the opportunity to fill special services like Thanksgiving as well as the odd Sunday when no other preachers were available.  Since our current pastor came, I have likely done more services than before, partially because she encourages it.

I do enjoy it.  It’s more than my enjoyment of public speaking which I do on a regular basis for my job.  There’s just something about presenting God’s word to your fellow believers and have them react in a positive way to the words.  I truly believe that they are not just my words, very often a bit of inspiration comes from places that are not expected, and words flow to the page with more ease than normal.

There is a negative side as well.  When it is done and the service is over there comes a tremendous tiredness (likely the after effects of an adrenalin high) along with the feeling of self-doubt.  Second guessing what was said.  Wondering if there should have been more.  Doubting the effectiveness of the delivery.  Asking myself whether I would have been better to stay in a comfortable pew.

I learn a lot from these experiences.  The study and preparation is good for me.  Aside from the post delivery trauma, I feel good about leading these services.

I am open to doing more.

Haggai 1

This Sunday, our pastor will be away on a well deserved holiday.  I have been encouraged to take the opportunity to lead the service.  This is something that I enjoy doing even though I need to work to fit it into my schedule.

Thats what the sermon will look at, the busyness of our lives, fitting God in or fitting into God.  I feel a bit like I am preaching to myself.  Racing from place to place and task to task trying to fit everything together and shoving bits of the important things in life into the remaining cracks.

Haggai brings God’s word to the people of Israel telling them that it is time that they get on with the job of rebuilding God’s temple.  They have been preoccupied with getting their own things in order and have neglected the thing that they came back from exile to do, rebuild the temple.  Haggai points out that the things that they are doing are not providing them with fulfillment because they have not been taking care of the things of God.

My life feels that way sometimes.  I am having fun building the sermon and the best part of my week is when I am in my Old Testament class.   My work life, while I feel appreciated by co-workers and direct reports, is not giving me much joy.  It feels a little barren.

Now I will push some responsibilities around so that I can finish the message for Sunday.

The Matriarchs

I finished my third assignment today.  It was actually started today as well.  I did a bunch of research for it last night and put the four pages together this morning.  It was fun.

The assignment had to do with the matriarchs of Genesis 12-50.  Why are they there? What do they add? Was their story necessary?  My writing focused on the barrenness of these women.  Three of the four principal matriarchs were at some point barren.  Their stories center around their struggles to produce an heir so that they can be active participants in the covenant that God made with the male side of the family.  In all of it the message is clear, God makes promises which will be fulfilled in His time.  God is the opener of wombs and the giver of blessing.

In a way it is nice to know that God is in control.  We seem to work so hard to make our own blessing when, really, those blessings come from God.  The question is…Would it have been better for these matriarchs to just sit back and wait for God to bless them?  Certainly their interference does have consequences.  Ishmael’s offspring become a real problem for the Israelites,   Jacob has to run for his life and he and Esau never really get along.  If they had left well enough alone, would the story have turned out the same?

Should I be working to steer blessing my way or wait for God to send the  blessing ?  The answer likely has something to do with your perspective on life.  Right now, I wonder if I should be waiting for God to further bless me in the place that I am in, or do something about what I perceive to be less than ideal circumstances and seek greater blessing elsewhere.

Working on a sermon for next week now.  It looks like it will center on the first chapter of Haggai.  I think it is going to have me working over the issues above as well.