Learning a New Rhythm

For a little over 36 years I have served the Church as pastor of congregations.  To be sure, over those years I also have done other things:  Fire Department chaplain, college instructor in philosophy, Stated Clerk, and many community activities where I've lived.  However, the thing that has been consistent in my vocation has been serving as a pastor.  I have loved doing that... at least most of the time! :-)  What I know is that when you are a pastor, your primary focus is on preparing to lead folks in the worship of God on Sunday mornings.  Other things come and go - weddings, funerals, pastoral visits, crises, leaky roofs, boiler problems, etc., etc. - but that Sunday morning thing comes around every week... week in and week out.  And at least for me, that has led to a definite rhythm of my weeks.  I know each day where I'd like to be in terms of finishing the worship liturgy, writing my sermon, selecting hymns, and putting the bulletin together.  That rhythm affected and defined my work schedule, my devotional life, my time for study and meditation, and time for writing.

Now, however, for the first time, I am serving in a larger Council of the Church - as the Stated Clerk/Communicator for the Presbytery of Cayuga-Syracuse - and things are different.  I absolutely love my new position!  Yet it is a change for me... not just a geographical change (I've never lived in the Northeast before), and not just a change in presbyteries and synods, but a change in how I structure my weeks.  As a result, I'm having to adjust to "Learning a New Rhythm."  No longer does the press of an approaching Sunday drive me to my books, to writing, to prayer, to reflection, to wrestling with biblical texts.  Yet what I am doing is so clearly ministry, and is a ministry I am enjoying to the fullest.  It's just that there's this different rhythm to my life and my work now.

Change is good... even for someone my age! :-)   And what change can do is to be that impetus to find our ways through life when we are "Learning a New Rhythm."  It's not a bad thing at all.  It's just, well, "different."  And so I'm adjusting to find my way into a new normal, a new routine, a new rhythm for praying, meditating, Bible reading, study, writing, and being in ministry with others.