Explore Our Community and Faith Journey

No, on Tuesday I did not feel bad celebrating my birthday in the pool at Hilton Head while Detroit was digging out from 10 inches of snow … yet believe it or not, there is a little sadness in our hearts about missing what is hopefully the biggest snow of the year. Settling for 50’s and some clouds, we are not anywhere close to the +75o and pure sun for which we yearn. However, the refreshment of being able to relax, reflect, recreate, and read are exactly what we desired.

How often have you made a decision that later came back to bite you? No, I am not talking about our decision to get our second COVID vaccine yesterday. 15 hours later my arm still feels fine, I am great, and I am certain that it was the right thing to do. And I definitely am not talking about our decision six months ago to leave for Hilton Head tomorrow. The decision I am thinking about I made nearly a dozen years ago!

A week ago Wednesday I received a phone from someone I hadn’t seen in a few years. A little way into the conversation he said to me, “Pastor, I would like you to conduct my funeral.” Now, usually when someone says something like this to me, I reach for the calendar app in my phone and ask (with my tongue in my cheek), “When would you like to book it?”

I found myself edging toward a panic mode this week … not actually to the point of having “wild unthinking behavior” but becoming stagnant while looking at all that needed to be done in a very short period of time. Of Course, the longer I hesitated, the less time I had to accomplish those things, while that list of things was not getting any shorter. In that light I guess I should more realistically admit that my stagnation was wild unthinking behavior – or, better yet, wild overthinking non-behavior!