Let me whinge about how tired I am...

Last week was a very punishing week. We had two staff members away on holiday which had a knock-on effect for my workload. I already had a full week on, so this was not appreciated. It was such a tough one for me that I've decided to miss this week's Games Night so I can have an evening in. Let me repeat that. I'm choosing to miss an opportunity to play board games. That's how weary I am.

(Was going to say 'shattered' but you don't use it that way in Oz. It means 'distraught' rather than 'blooming tired'.)

It drives home again all those considerations and challenges about commitment and choosing to respond well to circumstances. At times like this I'm always reminded of that part in Matthew 13:13-14 where Jesus is trying to take a break and the crowds won't let him. John the Baptist has just been executed and he wants some time alone to grieve, but the people follow him. I'm humbled and broken (perhaps 'shattered') by what Matthew tells us - that Jesus saw them, had compassion on them and attended to their needs at the immediate expense of his own. I'm also reminded of the description of Jesus (by Bonhoeffer if I remember correctly) as 'The Man for Others'.

There's no such thing as 'me time', or at least if there is it's merely time spent selfishly, for which we can expect no honour from God. There's time spent wisely making sure that my ministry is sustainable, and there's time spent feeding my egotistical conviction that "My needs are the most important thing in the world". The problem is that I can rarely tell the difference between the two.

Can I ever be Son of God enough to selflessly respond to the needs of others even when all I want is an evening by myself? I'm sure I'll have plenty of opportunities to put it to the test, and maybe I will prove myself to be a Christian after all.

On a less introspective note, I think it's about time I put some family photos up so that you can see how well we're all looking.

Daylight Savings

Easter has come and gone again, and I missed the opportunity to post about it on my blog. Thankfully Easter continues to shine throughout the year, so there's no worries there.

I preached on Easter Sunday morning at Cowra Baptist church. This was my first pulpit appearance at the church, and as votes of confidence go, giving over Easter Sunday is a pretty big one. I am due to preach again in July, and as that has yet to be revoked I guess I did OK on Sunday. I spoke about the idea of God doing some of his best work in the darkness. I was taken by John's throwaway line in his ressurection account that when the women go to the tomb it is 'still dark'. The darkness holds all kinds of terrors for us, but God works in the darkness regardless. John throws up all these contrasts in his gospel - light and darkness, life and death, those who believe contrasted with those who don't - and yet by the end of the gospel we are left in no doubt who is Lord over both light and darkness, life and death, and those who believe and those who don't. Easter is God working with the lights out, and those of us who live in the light of the resurrection are called to follow our Lord and Master by serving in those dark places.