100 Miles An Hour…for days at a time.

Since I’ve been home, there has been a lot of things going on.  I could try to give you a detailed account of all of it, but as I see it, there just isn’t time for all of that.  I need to process a little bit, so here is what I can tell you with assurance.

The first week I was home, I went to my denominational Church Planters school, which as the name suggests, is chucked full of useful tips for people who want to plant churches where are currently no churches.

The second week I was home, I attempted to get used to going to work at a church building.  I was just starting to get used to that, when last week hit, and I went back to school, cramming intense training on my denomination into a single week.  Last Friday, I had the first of three tests, and then continued class in preparation for the next test, which is tomorrow.

After class concluded last Friday, I got into a car at 2:17 PM and drove to O’Hare Airport.  There, I got on a plane that whisked me off to Cincinnati.  After that, I caught a connecting flight to Denver, where I arrived at 10PM mountain time.  On being picked up from Denver Int’l Airport (DIA), we went home to the parsonage where my roommate and I, after a little messing around, went to bed at around 2AM.  We got up at 8AM and drove to Thornton, where we had breakfast with the family of the wedding we were performing that afternoon.  Then we drove back home, where I dropped off my roommate and then went to pick up a dress shirt at a local store.  I got home just in time to shave, and get the shirt I bought ready to wear that same afternoon.  We left shortly after my roommate returned, and headed to the foothills where we performing the wedding.  The wedding started at 4PM, and we had to be there at 2.  After the wedding, we did the reception thing, then I went to hang out with some friends for a few hours, arriving back at the parsonage at 10:30, at which time I repacked my bags.  We left for DIA to catch our return flight at 11:30.  The flight left at 12:40.  On making the plane, we flew to Atlanta, where we caught a flight an hour later back to Chicago.  On arriving in Chicago at 8:00 AM local time, we got in the car, and drove home, just in time to shower and go back to class all day Sunday.

I conservatively estimate that between Friday at 2PM and Sunday at 8AM, a span of 40 hours, I traveled around 4000 miles, all told.  As I figure it, that means my average speed for that time frame was literally 100 miles an hour.

The wedding was cool.  I believe now, rightly or wrongly I don’t know, that officiating a wedding is the coolest job on the planet.  (Of course, I’ve not done a baby dedication yet, so that might take over the top spot, so I’m just going on what I know so far.)  I actually signed a wedding license, which is more than a little strange.  I’ve now signed every line on one of those it is possible for a male to sign, except one.  I figure that one is probably a ways off.  Such as it is, it is.  It was really kind of a strange honor being asked to do the wedding.  I’m glad that my roommate and compatriot was there, because I’m not sure how I’d have faired doing the wedding alone.  Luckily, I was the afterthought portion, not him.  Still, there is something cool about being able to stand there and recite the vows, asking someone to repeat them back to another person.  Very, very, very cool.

It was also nice to see some of the Colorado folks.  I didn’t get to spend nearly as much time with them as I would have liked, but I think that everyone will probably survive.  I’ll get to spend August to May with them again next year, even if I do decide to go somewhere else next summer.  I’m glad.  They are good folks.

The summer classes I’m taking have piqued my interest, which is sort of an interesting turn, but I guess it is what it is.  I’ve discovered that my family history in my denomination goes back almost to it’s inception, back to the early days of the first Baptist church in America, at Newport, RI in the late 17th Century.  Very, very interesting.  It’s a heritage I wasn’t aware I possessed.  I don’t believe that it makes me any more special than anyone else, but it’s a strange thing that to a certain extent, your pedigree is very different than you originally thought.  *shakes head*  There are lots of pastors in my family history, but that group hasn’t had any pastors since the early part of the last century, so there has been a bit of a gap between them and me.  Still, I’m not complaining.  In one sense, it adds to my satisfaction about my calling that I’m picking up where some of my forebearers left off. *shrugs*

I can see very clearly now that my biggest obstacle this summer is going to be trying to figure out how to balance my priorities and spend time with people.  The amount of work I’d like to do is almost infinite.  Much of the work I’d like to do will just have to wait until I get more time, whatever that means.  I’ve started collecting a list of projects I’d like to do, and I’ll just have to prioritize them and do them as I can.  I have a feeling many of them will never be completed.  Again, such is life.

My mind has been overstimulated lately.  I literally have all this inspiration, and nothing to do with it.  I’ve been doing all this studying for these intensive classes that most days I just spend classtime alternating between being just amazed and engaged with my denomination history and polity structure and being absolutely inspired to get off my chair and go do all this stuff.  I have lots of questions.  I have all these ideas about how I could get things that need to be done, done. 

And I have all this hope.  I’m actually in danger of becoming an optimist.  And if that happens, ladies and gentleman, beware.  I’m not sure what will happen if I lost my pessimism.  I need to go study…I have a test tomorrow.  Just wanted to check up and let you all know I’m doing very well here.  Blessings, and I’ll try to do a better job of keeping up on all your journals and so forth.