whiplash

that's what i think i'm gonna have after january 2011...a great big bewilderment, wondering 'where did that month go?'

everything has been full steam ahead, pedal stomped to the floor for about 6 weeks. youth center. permits. money. fundraising. 2010 fiscal year. 2011 budget. bill's jag. 4 doctoral students. carmel's new job. common time. lent. shane's hire. xp search. new after-school schedule. staff/elder retreat. paranoia. hypertension. mad pastor's disease.

thankfully, i find myself in a tiny little window of reprieve. i have this week to sort-of catch my breath, and then launch 200% into next week. next week i write the atlas on lent (which, btw, is the most horrifically boring topic imaginable...i've read almost 40 books on lent and not one, single sentence/paragraph/thought has expressed anything other than malaise and depression..."bright sadness" ha! says who? how about super-depressing-emo-weirdness-with-a-twist-of-catholic-guilt-and-sprinkled-by-antideluvian-liturgics?)

after i finish up with lent (hopefully offering something of marginally higher value than the drivel i've been reading), i'll be focusing on choosing our xp (down to just a couple of candidates now), and then ramping up the ww second campus which will eventually launch over at the youth center.

to clear up any confusion, the youth center is - and always will be - primarily a youth center. even once we start holding adult worship services there (which has always been part of the plan) that building will be primarily for teens. think of it as space we're renting...from ourselves...for free. we won't be un-youth-ing it, neither will we be limiting the youth-usage of it. but in the off-time for youth ministry, when it would otherwise remain empty (which is to say before noon) we will loan it to ourselves for church.

anyway, i'll get going on that soon enough. i really do need to chillax a little this week, though. i tore someone's head off this sunday in the lobby. it was ugly. they said "you guys don't care at all about jesus, all you care about is entertainment" then later "why do you need a youth center, the disciples didn't need $250 K to do ministry." i think at any other time, which is to say when i'm not feeling a little stretched thin, i would have responded graciously and calmly explained our rationale for why we're doing what we're doing and how. instead, i screamed at this poor idiot in the lobby.

bad form, davey...bad form.

so, yeah, i need to do a better job this week of recharging my batteries and managing my spirit; which, for me, ironically doesn't mean praying more or reading more scripture (i do that A LOT), but instead means wrestling with my kids, eating with my wife, playing mass effect 2, reading 'last argument of kings' in prep for 'heroes' and dreaming about 'game of thrones' on hbo.

alright - that's me, and that's all

for now

d.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad