Reverend Ref +

VACATION (sort of)

So we took a mini-vacation of sorts. This is less of a vacation and more of a family business trip. My wife's grandmother is having some health issues, and she wanted to check up on her and see how she's doing. Grandpa isn't in the best of health, but he seems to be holding his own.

She's had some "spells" recently that have given family members cause for concern. Her back is bothering her, she walks with a noticeable limp, she can't always get her right leg up off the ground when she walks (thereby causing a loss of balance and the occasional fall). And the "best" part of all this is that she attributes her problems to her eyes. Yes, her eyes. "I'm having starting to have vision problems and I'm sure that that's why I lose my balance." Right. Stubborn woman. Oh, did I mention that she's 85?

Then there's grandpa. He's got arthritis in his hands so bad that his fingers look like gnarled tree trunks. He needs two hands to lift a drink. But he's still out there mowing his lawn, fixing his tractor, running errands for his wife and digging up weeds. Not to mention the little "project" he worked on a few weeks ago -- the septic tank needed cleaning out, so he dug it out himself. He turns 88 Monday. "Everyone else was busy that day and it needed to be done." Stubborn man.

I'm not exactly sure what, if anything, we will be able to do. But the wife wanted to make the trip, so here we are. We also are managing to visit a few friends in Spokane. And, since this isn't really a vacation, I also wrote the sermon for the Sunday service in VC. One of my parishioners will lead Morning Prayer and deliver it. The first time I did that, it felt weird -- having someone else deliver a sermon that I wrote. Not so much this time.

The other reason that this is a "working trip" is because Holy Week starts a week from tomorrow. My middler year at SWTS I was the Holy Week chair. That means that I was the guy who got people involved to actively participate and plan different services that week. While I didn't have anything specific to do with any one service, I had to make sure that everything stayed on schedule and that things happened when they were supposed to. At least I wasn't at the printers Friday morning trying to get the Good Friday ordos taken care of.

So here I am in a familiar situation. Once again I am the Holy Week chair, except this time there's no Holy Week committee to work with. I'm frantically trying to get the bulletins done for the services that need them; get the music sorted out; get people to commit to participating in some capacity; get people to show up for services; and hope that I'm not forgetting something somewhere.

More than anything else, I hate looking stupid in public; and that's what's driving me nuts. I am trying to remember that nobody in Sheridan or VC will be as hard on me as I; and I am trying to relax. Really. But, in all honesty, next to my name are the letters M.Div; and next to those are the letters O.C.D.

Like my liturgics professor told me, Holy Week will come and the services will happen; the rest is just details. But it's the details that are killing me. And for those who are wondering; yes, the offices are closed Easter Monday and Tuesday.