Weekend .... Time to relax?

I almost always have full weekends it seems. I went in to work for a while this morning. One thing nice about a little bit of a commute with an easy drive (no traffic, etc.) is you usually get some mental downtime. I headed in about 615 am, cruising through farm country with no live deer to dodge. I finished up what I needed to get done by 1040 and headed back home. I got a couple of errands done on the way home, then had lunch with the boys. After that I had practice with the acoustic gospel group I play with (acoustic guitar) from 1 to 330 or so (was a good practice) and then headed home again. I watched some of the first round of the NFL draft and then observed my oldest son while he cooked the main part of supper for everyone on the grill. He knocked it out of the park, working the grill cooking hamburgers, corn on the cob, and hot dogs. It was goooooooooood.

After supper I got to work on the prayer list and announcements sheet for church tomorrow. I found out a few months ago that only about 30 or so get printed and most of those don't get distributed for one reason or another. So a few weeks ago I took the matter in my own hands and started sending out both *.doc and *.pdf versions of the file to all the Lifegroup leaders with the hope they would share it with their Lifegroups, meaning about 200+ people who are more involved should at least be getting the prayer list. You never can have too many people praying in my opinion.

Hopefully I'll be getting the message notes soon so I can start on the Lifegroup guides which will be based on tomorrow's message. I take the notes and listen to both services to know how to work and wordsmith the guides into a readable, booklet type style complete with questions for the leaders to use with their groups. Some of the Lifegroups use the guides to go into Sunday's message a little deeper, discussing it and just talking about it. The problem with not getting the file pretty soon is there will be a delay in getting them out to the Lifegroup leaders because I haven't had the time lately to take a break at work to do them or finish them up.

Anyways, tomorrow I'll be at the school by around 7am to set up my equipment for playing bass with the worship team. We'll be doing sound checks and then practicing until about 905 to 910. Around 9:20 we'll have prayer as a team and then start the service at 9:30 with the first song. The first service will be over around 10:45 or so, and then we'll re-tune and go over any rough spots before clearing the stage around 11 in preparation for starting the next service at 11:15. The service will be over around 12:30 or so and then I'll be tearing down my part of the sound equipment and my instrument equipment, usually finishing up by around 1pm.

After teardown I'll head home to grab something light for lunch and then get ready to sing/play keyboard with the other gospel group (country gospel) I'm in. I use the keyboad for the drums, basic chord accompaniment, and to play the bass line. We have to be there by 2pm to set up and do a quick sound check, and then will be playing for about an hour starting at 3pm. I should be back to the house by around 4:45pm or so, and then I can drop.

Thats how my weekends are most of the time. The only difference would be that I'm not playing out somewhere every Sunday afternoon.

Why do I stay that busy on the weekend? Is it to make money? No....the reason I go in to work for 3 to 4 hours early on Saturday mornings is to make up for my weekly Tuesday doctor's appointment since that always makes me late to work. I wouldn't turn down the overtime, but since I'm salary, no OT. Is it to see how busy I can be? No... Is it to avoid certain people? No.... Is it to make a name for myself? No...most people don't know I do all that stuff.

Why then???? It's actually pretty simple - the overall reason is to help get the message of God's love for people through Jesus Christ, in all types of ways to all types of people. So if you see me yawn every now and then, be gentle when you poke lol. Come join the fun - I can't think of a better reason to be busy.

Later....and be careful out there.