Lights on. Lights off.

Oh, my poor blog! I haven’t seen you in so long! Has it really been two whole months? I really have missed you, and I’ve had so many blog posts wanting to be written.
The last few months have been really, really crazy. I know we all go through these phases in life. My problem is that I can get so laser focused on all of the things I need to do, that I can’t rest with such a long to-do list looming over my head.
It all started last spring, really. As I’ve mentioned here before, our church is getting ready to move into a new facility. As long as we were making such a major change, we decided we should go ahead and change lots of things!
So, starting last spring, that’s what I’ve been doing. I’ve had the privilege of getting to work on tweaking our logo and changing our colors. Once that was done, it meant changing everything else… building a new web site, redesigning all of our promotional materials and signage.

I’ve also been blessed to get to work on my video editing skills. I’ve realized I really love telling people’s stories, and I’ve been able to do lots and lots of that the last few months by interviewing, filming, editing and creating videos for our Sunday morning services. Add in a direct mail campaign, which was a first for me, and just all of the normal stuff that I need to do on a weekly basis, and well, whew! It’s been crazy!

All of this hard work was in preparation of this past Sunday when we were scheduled to have our first service in our new building. And then… the first marshal stopped by. And he asked us to do a few more things before we could actually occupy our new space.
Instead of having our first service on Sunday, we had no service.
I’ve learned something about myself the last few months. I can be like a light switch. When I have a million things on my plate, I’m either “on” or “off”. I’m either running as fast as I can go, or I crash, too tired to move. I get so used to running a hundred miles a minute, that I forget how to walk.
We suddenly went from racing to get everything ready on time to a complete standstill. One minute I was picking up signs, banners, booklets and postcards from the printer. The next, I was stopped in my tracks.
I woke up Sunday morning with a major headache, caused by a big knot in my neck. I slept in. Then I just laid around doing absolutely nothing for a few hours. I wasn’t sure what to do with myself.
By mid-morning, I started realizing what a blessing that day was. I can get so focused on “doing” church or creating an experience or trying to make everything look great for outsiders, that I can forget to stop and get quiet and focus on God. So, Sunday turned out to be a real blessing for me. A true day of rest.
My to-do list is much, much shorter this week than it has been for months. I’m thankful that when we do finally have our first service at our new facility, I will be able to go to it at a normal pace, rather than exhausted and running on fumes.
And I’m starting to figure out how to operate at a place between “lights on” and “lights off”. So, “Hello blog!” You might start seeing a little more of the medium-speed me.