cardboard testimony.

Great video my friend Doug passed along this week:

david price.

I can't even imagine being David Price right now. The Tampa Bay rookie played his first Major League game just over a month ago. He is 23-years-old and wasn't even playing professional baseball 16 months ago. His first Major League win didn't come until the playoffs. His first Major League save sent his team to the World Series. And it was pretty clear that the intensity didn't phase him at all.

So today, the first day of the World Series: best of luck to Price and his TB Rays.

Prediction: Rays in 6

monday update: october 20

The weekend that was... the leaves are changing and this weekend the temperature plummeted. That meant it was great weather to stay inside and relax on the couch. Friday we ventured out into the rain to pick up a refurb'd PS2 (it's DDR time now!), had a great lunch at Casa, got pumpkin muffin mix at Trader Joe's, went out to the jam-packed theater (it was raining...) for Secret Life of Bee's (another great portrayal of race relations in the mid-20th century) and got dessert after that. On Saturday, we spent all day (literally) in front of the TV watching football: Clemson vs. Georgia Tech, Spiders vs. UMass and Hokies vs. BC. Unfortunately, only one of our teams won. And during the VT/BC game, I put up our 2nd TV next to the other one so we could keep up with the Red Sox and Rays.

And Sunday. Oh, Sunday. Sundays are so busy now! We had a great close to our (entirely too long) series on our storyline. The students walked into the youth room in complete silence, had some guided prayer and Scripture reading on the big screen and then worship time. The message was reading the stories of Jesus' life, and we closed with the first Last Supper story, broke the bread and had communion. The kids had a great experience. I think we'll do it again!

Where I am at the moment... Richmond for the week. Actually, Richmond for a while. I'm good with that.

To-do list this week... This is catch-up week. And it's Fall Break, so no class Thurs/Fri. Last week was insanely busy and I felt like I was behind all week. This week is more relaxing. And I might venture out to see an unnamed presidential candidate in the capital city tomorrow...

Music that caught my attention... Two songs. Both by Jason Mraz. The first one is his new single, "I'm Yours." The second was the closing track on his last album, "Mr. A-Z," titled "Song for a Friend." At the end of the track, a choir sings with him, and in that choir are some of my former youth. They recorded that three years ago and I'm just now listening to it...

Keeping Your Job and Your Sanity: Part III

Missed Part I and Part II?

During these months, I started to take solace in this quote: “I can’t apologize about where God is calling me.” I just didn’t know where God was calling me.

That seems direct and to the point. But the issue is also much larger. If I place all hope in myself, I am not allowing space for God to move. Perhaps God is saying that my journey here is over and is placing a call on someone else’s life to carry the baton. In my overfunctioning, my blinders were keeping me focused straight ahead, running forward with everything I had in me.

I eventually left and moved onto another ministry position. My “official” reasons were many, and made much sense. Looking back, I realize that burnout was probably the biggest reason, although I don’t know that I was aware of it at the time. I was only part-time. Why did I think I could do all of that, without even so much as a weekend vacation? Without some sort of stress-reliever.

My new position was temporary, and I often wondered if I should have stayed in that first church and tried to push through. I wondered when I left if that church would survive -- that was the overfunctioning talking.

With space between that time and now, I see that the church has moved ahead, and others became empowered when I stepped aside.

A former student in the youth ministry took the reigns of the youth ministry for a season. Talks about the new building moved ahead. That video projection ended up in the Sanctuary. New families began attending the church. Another couple stepped up to lead the college-age/stage ministry.

I thank God for my time there. I learned so much, and as I moved into a new ministry position, I knew myself better and could position myself to not fall into the same traps. I knew my boundaries of time, of communication, of needing a personal day off.

Overfunctioning? I’m done with it! I hope I never find myself thinking that the future of the church I work in is based only on the success of the ministries I oversee. I have to create that space between myself and my job, differentiating my sense of self from my work. When a day is good, I can celebrate. But when a day is bad, I need to separate myself from the situation.

And I learned about conflict and anxiety. The deacons who cried “foul” were simply anxious. The problem was not me, and I see that now. But I did not have the experience or the maturity then to know that. I laugh at that story now. If I keep living stories like that, I might have to write a book!

God is working in the midst of what I do. And God is working in the midst of what I don’t do. As long as I am in tune with God’s call for my life, then the rest will fall into place. Sometimes that might include leaving a ministry position. Other times it will mean staying even when it hurts. But God provides, and that’s all that really matters.

Read the original.