I’m better than I used to be. It used to be that I was so caught up in trying to justify my existence, to always discern some kind of measurable progress, that I almost never took a day off. After all, I reasoned, many of my parishioners don’t, and farmers can’t. Etc. Etc. Etc.
It wasn’t until I was appointed to my 5th church, that already, before I ever even got to the campus, they had a legacy of being closed on Friday. I was shocked. I could not believe that. I thought, well, I’m coming in on Friday anyway, work without air conditioning if I have to, I don’t care what. I’ll at least work half a day. That will seem like a day off in part.
But early on at that appointment, when parishioners would catch me at the church they’d say things like, "What are you doing up here? This is supposed to be your day off!" "You need time for your family." Etc., etc., etc. Until finally I began to realize that the expectation was, unless there were some emergency, I, too, was entitled to a five day work week like everyone else.
Now, that’s a pretty difficult thing to swallow when you have spent enormous amounts of energy trying to justify your existence, your pay, show progress for the money and faith that people are investing into you, etc. But over the years, I have come to enjoy my time off. I don’t always do as good as I should, but I certainly do better than I did some 33 years ago!
So, I worked out today, went to Rotary, visited with a parishioner at his house and saw how beautifully it was laid out, took a nap, went out to eat at a neat Mexican restaurant, tried to go see a parishioner in a hospital (with my wife which is highly unusual) and the guy was already checked out, so we walked across the street and strolled through a mall that is gentrifying (which I virtually never do), and in essence had a very relaxing day.