Back to Reality

It's been hard for me to get back into real life after the incredibly fun weekend we had at our wedding, especially since this has been an interesting week.  I had a not so fun doctor's appointment this week where they are having to run tests on me :( and my hair was cut shorter than I wanted...but at least it will grow back.  I still like it being short, but not this short!  And it's been difficult to hear from some of the people that told me that they were coming to the wedding and didn't show up.  Two of them were my really good friends that I have known for years, and I was really looking forward to seeing them at the wedding.  One of them I haven't seen in forever, and I actually looked for this person as I was walking down the aisle, and I was really disappointed when I didn't see them.  I know that I need to focus on who was there and the fact that everything was great, but it still hurts to know that some of my good friends were not there and really didn't have much of an excuse either.  I know I need to get over it because it's done and nothing can be done about it.  The reality check for this realization is that we gain friends and lose friends as we get older.  It was an important day, and the people who were meant to be there were there, and that's all there is to it.

On another note, I get to preach at church on Sunday, and I finished my sermon earlier today.  I'm looking forward to it, although I was hoping that I could preach from notes only, but I went ahead and typed up a manuscript to use.  I just don't think I'm ready to not use one.  And I've realized that I'm more of a writer than a talker at this point- eventually I'd like to be extremely comfortable at both so that I can focus more on preaching from little notes or even nothing at all.  But these things take time.

I had another RIM covenant group meeting on Wednesday, and I'm starting to feel like these meetings are a waste of time.  We all drive about 2 hours both ways to sit and eat together and talk about our churches.  While I know this can be helpful, nothing has really come out of it yet, and I'm quite a bit younger than the people in my group, so I don't feel like I fit in very well- and I don't like that it takes away from office hours and/or other ministry duties for a whole day.  I'm hoping that it gets better.  Oh, and then I went to choir practice at church Wednesday night and had a great time- I'm just glad to be singing again!

I also went to see this woman in the hospital today who I had been told is "done with our church" because no one had cared enough to come see her since she's been sick.  Again, this was a situation where the pastors had no idea that she was sick or wanted a visit.  She is now in the hospital and I was notified, so I went to see her.  She was glad I came, but I could tell she was rather fed up with the church- she went on and on about how much she had done for the church, and no one cared when she was old and sick.  The only thing I could really do was to say that she was being thought of and prayed for, and that we sincerely did not know that she had been sick and wanting a visit.  Again, clergy cannot read minds! I don't know where people get this idea.  I did what I could with the situation I was given.  Maybe she will come around!

That's all the news for now!