Choice Made

You may or may not remember the other week when I was asked to be on my Association's uber-Consistory.

Well, I realized yesterday that I hadn't called my colleague back yet, probably much to her dismay.

Last week, a longtime congregation member died and the family couldn't have been more appreciative that I'd been available to minister to them.

Yesterday, I stopped by a hospice facility to pray for a father with terminal cancer...a request made after his own pastor hadn't visited in over a week.

This morning, one of our church's little treasures stopped by to give me pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and say, "Tank you, Pastoh Jeff." And I got her to "Boo yah!" a whole bunch of times.

This afternoon, I sat with a young woman who will be a first-time mother probably sometime early tomorrow morning. She and the father-to-be expressed so much excitement and nervousness...mostly through how they joked with each other and with their other visitors.

Tonight, I stopped by calling hours for a woman saying goodbye to her older brother...the first of six siblings to die.

Why, I asked myself, do I want to detract from all of this with another committee meeting? What would I really be missing if I my month had this big Council-shaped mass in it? I might miss being silly with a little girl. I might miss holding a newborn baby. I might miss a family's prolonged goodbye to one of their central pillars.

That ain't right, man. It just ain't.

This afternoon, I respectfully declined. My call is to all of these complicated people and all their crazy, joyful, anxious, tearful, wonderful lives.

I'm already on a committee, and it helps people like me better serve people like them. And it is enough.

It is enough.