Well the 'to do' list is nearly done, that is the stuff I really should have done before I started and stuff I have to do so returning to things in September will not be too problematic.
I've become very concious over the past few days of how task focussed my life and ministry has become (as my yo do list can give testimony)... yet the thing I will miss the most over this time is not the 'tasks' but the people. Thursday, my last day at Aston and Sunday, my last day at Water Orton were tinged with sadness as I said farewell to folk (for the time being); knowing that people's journeys would take them in different directions. At Aston that was particularly true with friends and colleagues who I know will of moved on completely and so our paths will physically separate. For others I know that their health is such that they will have changed when I return and that will be a painful journey. I've been struck too however of the need for me to 'be' and not always do. The assertion that God loves us as we are is something I often preach about however the pattern of my life could be seen as one where through all the doing and the 'tasks' there is a sense in which I/we try and earn that love. In the Introduction to a book my colleagues gave me (Rest in the Strom by Kirk Byron Jones) was this question:
If God , gospel and the church are so wondrous, why is it that many involved in ministry today are feeling fatigued and empty? - I'll look forward to some of the answers the author suggests and have a few suggestions of my own... I hope and pray that this sabbatical might help me focus more on people and less on task and in particular the people most close to me who often get less attention than they deserve. As I've said before I hope that the experience of these months will be one in which I can reconnect with my Creator who loves me as I am (no matter what's still on my 'to do list'.)
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