Wednesday, March 30, 2011

The Perfect Storm

Those of you who are regular readers of Sola Gratia have probably noticed that posts have been extremely sparse over the last couple weeks.  Even some of our weekly features (e.g., A Word for Pastors, Friday Funnies) have come up missing on occasion.

The reason for this is twofold.  First of all, this is always the busiest time of year for me.  Annually during Lent, our church has Wednesday night fellowship dinners followed by a worship service.  I thoroughly enjoy these times each year...and not just because I'm the one who plans the services and preaches!  That being said, preparation for these services (on top of my other ongoing responsibilities) makes for a busy season in the life of this pastor.

Add to that the fact that a couple weeks ago, my father, who recently was diagnosed with cancer, had colon surgery.  I went to St. Louis to be with my parents for the surgery and the first few days of recovery.  It was kind of a last minute thing, so I didn't really have any chance to prepare to be gone.

The biggest challenge of going away for any period of time is always coming back.  The piles on your desk don't ever get smaller while you're away, and in fact often seem to grow.  This fact, matched up with the timing of my absence sort of led to "the perfect storm."

I say that for two reasons.  One is a means of explanation as to why there has been a reduced amount of blogging going on, and to make the point that this was a temporary situation.  Every storm eventually passes.  The second reason is it serves as a means of introduction to my sermon tonight on Mark 4:35-41, coincidentally (wink, wink) entitled "The Perfect Storm."  In it I will continue my series on "Faith & Doubt" as we examine Jesus' calming of the storm on the Sea of Galilee, pictured at left by Rembrandt.

If you're interested, the sermon should be up on our website by Thursday morning at the very latest.  You can go there by clicking here, or by clicking the link at the top of my blog's right hand column.  Also, if you're so inclined, you can click here to access podcast information and subscribe via iTunes by clicking on the link toward the bottom of that page's right hand column.

********* Update - The title of the sermon actually ended up being "Who Is This Man?" *********

1 comment:

jbboren said...

I can relate. My own dad has been in the hospital on and off for a month now, and is likely on his last few months (he has congestive heart failure and renal failure).

On the list of things to do, the blog is way down there. God bless your family during this time.