Monday morning check-in
Sermon prep-less week
I know "prep-less" is not a word but like I am fond of telling my wife, "If it comes out of my mouth, then it is a word". That may or may not be a good idea, but I am going to apply that logic here.
Today begins a sermon prep-less week. For those of you who are not solo pastors this may not seem like a big deal. But if you are used to preparing a sermon (nearly) every single week of the year...a week off seems kind of strange. This weekend is the SW MN Synod Assembly. It's been called the synod's "business" meeting (I don't like that title). Others have called this weekend a "forced day off" for pastors (that may be closer to the truth...the "forced" part not the "day off" part). Whatever the weekend is "officially" called, it is a time for me to re-fuel a little bit. I enjoy preparing and preaching sermons, but I still need a week off now and then to help me appreciate this craft more. But even though I am not engaging in my "official" sermon prep routine, I still think I am still going to go to my favorite coffee house on Thursday for lunch (with my laptop) to do some writing. I guess some habits are just too hard to break.
Prince Caspian
Yesterday the churches in Jackson hosted a day at the movies for people to come and watch The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. A number of businesses donated door prizes which we gave away before and after the movie. After the movie we also had a time for questions and answers.
Without giving too much of the movie away I thought there was a lot of violence in the movie (epsecially for younger kids). There was one family that walked out during the movie for that very reason. Granted...the violence was not as bad as most movies; there was no blood and gore, but a lot of people/characters died. The first Narina movie did not have this much violence and the books don't have the violence either. Hollywood definitely took a lot of creative liberties with the movie. Even though it is rumored that the C.S Lewis family approved how these stories were protrayed, I find it hard to believe C.S. Lewis himself would have approved. These stories were written as children's stories. And the last time I checked, "children's stories" generally don't contain that much violence. But that aside...I still really enjoyed the movie and recommend it. I just don't recommend it for young children. Please preview the movie before letting children see it. And that is all I will say about it. I don't want to ruin it for anyone.
Training
117 days, 19 hours and 14 minutes (give or take a few minutes, hours or days...depending on when you read this) until the Medtronic Twin Cities marathon. This past week or so my running has been a little slow. My right hip has really been hurting me lately, but is feeling better today. I can still run, but it takes a few miles for my hip to loosen up enough for me to get up to pace. Maybe this is a sign that I am indeed getting old (but let's not tell my body or my wife...I still plan to run this marathon).
With that I take my leave of you. Since this is a sermon prep-less week, I am going to take advantage of it and get some things done that I haven't done for a while. I am also going to try to get outside this afternoon and enjoy this blue sky that I haven't seen for awhile.
So take care and have a very blessed day!
-edh-
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