Task Master

One of the reasons I seldom make a judgment about ANYTHING is that as soon as I do the same words turn around and snap back at ME! No fair!! I'm not kidding either. It takes all the fun out of being haughty. Sunday night I was simply giving loving, gentle reminders of a hard-nosed encouraging task master to Jane who is finishing a book. Finishing a book??? Wow! But I had also done my fair share of sending links to web pages and to other blogs that night which could only lead to hours of distraction, so I gently, lovingly reminded her a few times to get back to work! :-) Her husband is out of town so it's just the dogs left to give her directions, and they would rather have their ears scratched than have her scratching the keyboard of the computer. Yesterday I ended up working several extra hours so when I got home I thought surely I deserved an hour of distraction and turned on the TV. My favorite position to watch TV in our bedroom is to lay 90 degrees to the normal sleeping position. My husband is also out of town this week, so I had no one who came to say "You fell asleep (again). Can you move so I can go to sleep?" So my little hour of distraction turned into a night's sleep! I woke up at 4am, after an above-average 7 hour sleep cycle only to find Jane the task master had sent me an email while I slept asking where Monday's post was... :-[ Who knows, I may make more sense at 4am than 11pm! This will be a back-dated, "While you were sleeping" post - hey, maybe that's a new title for Jane's next book! Back to work!!

My prayer for the congregation?

Dear God, When left on our own, we fall back on our own conveniences, our own desires, our own time tables. When we work in community we have fellow colleagues who offer encouragement, advice and accountability. We have someone to help tug on the tow line when we have used our liberties to wade a little past our agreed boundaries and someone to run for help when we have taken apart the knot to appease our own cravings, unattended and unfettered. Let us be receptive, and not disdainful, when our own ways have been checked into balance, and let us post lookout for others who are in need of protected rest or for those who are in need of a reminder to whom they belong and to whom they serve. Let us be fair, yet strong task masters to one another, for there is much to be done! Amen.