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I had forgotten.

This afternoon I worked on two upcoming meetings.  Both the agenda and the accompanying documents.  Part of this required putting together some binders of meeting minutes.  Another part was looking over previous actions and deciding what needs to be followed up.

In past years this was a pure pleasure to me.  Nowadays I’m much more involved in person-to-person interactions (I was at the hospital, at a meeting with others and enjoying a lunch today!). 

The pleasure is still there.  Organizing and preparing so that others can work with me in putting together action plans.

Oh, the things that we enjoy!!

I’ve thought on this for the last few weeks.

I like the idea that coincidence is just God anonymously fulfilling his plan.  Seems to work as a working definition.  I am becoming more and more convinced that nothing happens without God in it.

Today I saw someone I had planned on contacting but wasn’t sure I’d be able to reach them.  Walking down a hall.  Both in the same place at the same time.  Without a prior appointment.

It’s as though there had been someone providing the ingredients to make the incidence happen.  That’s what I’m calling provide-nce.

I’ve listened over the years to Paul Harvey’s news and “the rest of the story”. I listened a few weeks ago and got a different voice. Figured it was just an off day. Today I came across the news story that Paul died over the weekend. But, you can still run across his voice broadcasting over the internet and into the ether!

I guess that’s the rest of the story – Paul is dead but his voice will live on!

I decided that there was a need to do a bit of exercise today.  I headed out the door to pick up mail at the post office (small town mail delivery is “self-delivery”).

On the way, I passed the work of an acquaintance of ours.  I haven’t seen her for some time, so I dropped in.

She serves as a receptionist, so the chatting was limited.  I did tell her I was thinking on my sermon for this coming Sunday as I meandered through downtown.  She thought a day off constituted time away from sermons. 

Not so sure!  I guess my sermons are taking on my life.  Which is not a bad thing!  When my walk and talk are the same . . . (a bit of a cliche joke there!!).

I think oftentimes sermons are just the next thing in a series, or the conglomeration of surveys of felt needs. 

When there is an intersection of the preachers own passions and the direction of a Biblical text, along with the sense of a community — should be a winner!

That’s what I’m looking for.

And maybe, just maybe, that can be a refreshing on a day off.