Heard an encouraging message tonight at church. It came from Harlem Salim, the evangelist of the Indonesain International Churches of Christ. He was here in Columbus for our church conference entitled ‘Strong in the Grace”. I must say that I was underwhelmed by the conference, but I think that had more to do with me than the conference itself. Many people were encouraged and inspired by what they heard. So I guess that makes it a success. Right now I am just bogged down by, well, life. There’s been just a bit too much life for my tastes right now.
Work has been, well, without going into details let’s just say pretty stressfull of late. Crazy deadlines & demands, miscommunications, pulled in many directions, lack of support. I’ve also been lobbying for getting help with a project for a friend at work, without much success. That finally got worked out today, thankfully. I’m no good a approaching the boss, or his boss (the owner) let alone both with what amounts to a favor.
My barbershop chorus, the Singing Buckeyes is ramping up for fall contest. We’ve got some pretty amitious songs we’re learning. It’s been a few years since we’ve been on top in our district, and we’re trying to regain lost ground. We’ve got a new director (a little over a year now) and we’re making some great headway. There’s a bunch of pressure to get up to speed, put in extra time practicing, etc. We’ve got an all day coaching session this Saturday that I really need to be at.
The deacons have been going from house to house meeting with the people. It’s been encouraging to get to know people a bit better, but it’s also been pretty exhausting. We’re paired up and the brother I’m with and I have been doing two a week. The group we’re meeting with are all across on the other side of town, so each visit is about 1 hour of drive time there and back. Each meeting itself has taken about 2 hours. Don’t hear me wrong, I’m very glad we’re doing this (I’ve gotten a few free meals!), it’s just that I had know idea how much work it would really be. Not to mention that emotional exhaustion that comes from hearing people’s struggles and concerns. Or hearing that they don’t have concerns when I feel so much concern for my church right now.
The conference itself was a big undertaking for our small church. We’ve had these type of conferneces before, but other (larger) churches sponsored them. This year our minister when out on faith and said that the 120 or so disciples in Columbus would host it. So we did and over 800 were here this past weekend. My role, as children’s ministry deacon was to coordinate children’s ministry for Sunday morning. Let’s just say that it didn’t go as well as I would have liked. The planning, that is, Sunday morning itself went off with out a hitch. Dispite lots of emails and attempts to get information, I did not know up until Sunday AM how many kids I’d have or how many teachers would be there from other churches to help. I came very close to cancelling the children’s ministry all together. For a while I felt a like I was going to loose no matter what I did. In the end, the disciples from other churches came through and we had more than enough teachers. I was even able to let a few go back into the church service.
And to top it all off, my two older daughters go in on Tuesday to get their tonsils out. Two under 10 rcovering from surgery in the same house next week ought to be fun. Mom is coming down to help either Tuesday night or Wednesday morning, which will be very good, but it will probably be a little crazy around here. Oh, and did I mention that the middle one broke her arm on Monday?
I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised that I was a little out of it at church tonight. People were asking me simple questions and you’d think they had asked me to do Dick Chaney’s taxes in my head. I just looked at them dumfounded. Reading this post, it makes a little more sense. (I honestly didn’t figure out how much I was dealing with until I wrote this out tonight!)
So tonight when I heard Harlem speak the following, it was as if a burden had been lifted and everything was OK. It was something like this:
Remember, you’re the son of the King.
That kinda puts everything else in perspective, doesn’t it?
Wow–it has been a rough week for you. I wondered about the silence, but thought maybe you were out of town.
I’m glad to hear the deacons are following through on the commitment to visit the church members. Hopefully, as you talk to so many different people about their experience with the CCoC, a picture will begin to emerge of where you need to go. Not to say that church leadership should be driven by the emotions of the congregation, but perhaps the emotions of the congregation can teach you things you didn’t yet know about the effects of your leadership.
With respect to the tonsillectomies, this surgery has historically been one that is overprescribed, often unecessary, and frequently ineffective. Unless the girls are having repeated SEVERE, debilitating throat infections that do not respond to antibiotic treatment, it is better to wait the problem out. I had several strep throat infections as a child; my pediatrician wanted to yank my tonsils (very common back then) but we couldn’t afford it. A few months later I had my last infection and never had another. Have you had a second opinion?
Not trying to be pushy here, but surgery always has inherent mortality risks, and it should always be a last resort. God (or evolution) put tonsils in there for a reason, eh?
I hope things improve in the “life” category for you soon!
Thanks for the input on the tonsillectomy. While I haven’t gotten a second opinion from another ENT doc, I feel pretty good about the decision. WE’ve felt like this was someting that would need to happen for a while.
The girls, 7 and 9, have had repeated trouble with strep over the years. We ususally have at least half a dozen cases a year between the three girls. They both have very swollen tonsils, to the point that the 7 year old had trouble breathing the last time that she had strep because her tonsils were actually touching each other and making her gag. They both snore quite a bit and the 9 year old complains of trouble sleeping (maybe unrelated?)
The pediatritian has resisted for a long while refering them to an ENT specialist. When they did 2-3 weeks ago he was unequivocal about it and did not want to delay.
Under those circumstances it seems like a reasonable course of action.
That sounds like a reasonable ENT consult. If the girls have trouble breathing, that’s a bad thing! I wish them a speedy recovery, and lots of ice cream.