Halfway

My sabbatical is halfway over. I guess I should have some emotions about that - dismay at how quickly it's passing or excitement that I'll be back at Living Water soon. But I'm trying to live in the moment during this time away, neither looking back nor looking too far forward. My question is, "What does God want to say to me today?" So, I still have 40-some days to listen.
But I'm also trying to take what has already happened - the amazing trip to Germany, the indescribable experience of preaching in Tanzania, the breath-taking views on the safari, and even the conversations from General Assembly - and see what common themes rise up from them all.

I confess to feeling a little bit of guilt that I haven't mapped out the next year's worth of sermon series or figured out my next stewardship campaign yet. But those are things that I would do if I were still working as pastor of Living Water this summer. They are the things I will do when I return as pastor in September. In other words, I have to keep reminding myself that now is the time to set those things aside so I can hear (and ask) the deeper questions. That is the beauty of a sabbatical - the urgent things go away so you have time to hear the important things.

The busiest part of the sabbatical is over. The traveling is mostly done (except for a relaxing trip to Illinois to see my sister and my good friend Nina and a not-so-relaxing trip to Ft Worth to move my daughter to Brite Divinity School). So this is the time when the inner journey will become the work of my sabbatical. Frankly, I'd rather deal with packing and laundry and flight schedules and hotels. Those are chronos things. They have a time to start and stop. They can be checked off the list. The things that remain are primarily kairos things - outside of time, on God's time. This is where the real work begins...