Week 2

Week 2.

In anticipation of Week 1, Day 1, Sunday 1, this is when the reality of a new appointment really begins to settle in. Not just a guest preacher, the new pastor now has to figure out her or his place. Whatever bumps (or collisions) the first week and first Sunday brought, now it when the new pastor begins to settle in for the long haul. The new pastor finally has a history (albeit woefully short) with their new congregation. Now there’s a “last Sunday” and a “last week” to reference.

I am by nature a planner. I am absolutely convinced the world works better when someone (and yes, I’m willing to be that person) has a plan. The thing with plans, of course is they change. Sometimes in small ways. Sometimes in ways so radical it becomes questionable whether the “plan” ever really existed to begin with.

My last Sunday at Calvary UMC was June 8. I had three weeks between then and starting at Arden UMC. As mostly planned, I spent that first week caring for family and personal details—at least some of them. The following two weeks were to be occupied with coming up with a plan for my new appointment. Creating to do lists. Coming up with a plan.

But that never happened. Sunday, June 15 – Fathers Day—we received the unthinkable news that my brother Dan had committed suicide. Dan was also to have been beginning a new appointment this summer. I had anticipated touching base with each other on our first Sunday and comparing notes. I didn’t get to do that yesterday, though.

Someday, and I suspect not too far from now, I will have words to speak more about this loss for me and our family. Right now those words are hard coming. I had decided I would offer the witness (some call it a eulogy) at Dan’s funeral on the Sunday before I started my new appointment. But I had no words. I couldn’t write anything till the morning of the service. And once written, those words were all I had. Perhaps I’ll at least post that here soon.

All that to say, here I am at week 2 still living into things, and yes, even flying by the seat of my pants a bit. As Bill O’Reilly was teased when taped during a difficult rehearsal, “We’ll do it live!”

Week 2. Doing it live. There will be a plan soon enough. And as soon as there is one, it will change. But I give thanks that our God is a God of plans. Of scripts. And of going off-script. And yes, even of chaos.

And so it is…

Week 2.