Skip to main content

A Busman's Holiday?

 

It’s a funny thing but public holidays don’t feel like holidays to us now that we are retired. So King’s birthday (it still sounds funny saying that) and the other public holidays our country celebrates (around eleven in total) seem just like any other day to us. I suppose that is because we are ‘home’ every day anyway. Well, I am out four days a week usually but it feels different because it isn’t to go to a job. Basically, even though those days are fairly locked in I could choose to go different days and do different things. However, I like to know what I am doing every week and tend to do certain things on certain days. My days are full and enjoyable (except for housework day!). Any spare moment I might have I enjoy a good read.

I do work hard at being flexible and am able to do this if something comes up—my mother’s long hospital stay is a case in point and occasionally I am asked for some extra volunteer work. But my personality is task-orientated and organized so this works well for me and my husband is content with this also as he helps when needed and does his own thing otherwise. He has his vegetable garden, and his hobbies.

So a long weekend is nothing particularly special, just another day with a list of things to do. Having said that, Christmas and Easter are special to me and I celebrate them appropriately taking a rest from my normal daily calendar although I might sometimes squeeze in tasks in the days leading up to those holidays. I do often wonder how people who don’t know Jesus manage in life. I couldn’t and wouldn’t want to do without Him. Some people might say Christianity is a crutch—it’s anything but! It does however make sense of this painful, chaotic, scary, beautiful, amazing world that we live in. Thank God!

Bless you all today.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Planting Seeds

  Carrying on from last week, I was wondering how I am sowing seeds. I realised that we can all sow seeds everywhere we go. I don’t go out that often actually, I don’t belong to any secular groups but I can still be responsive to the leading of the Holy Spirit. Under his leading I made a determined effort to get to know the names of all the staff at my two favourite cafés that I visit at least weekly. I ask about their families; I support where I can. My friends and I find opportunities to give them all a little gift of chocolate and a card with a verse of scripture written on it. They all know we are Christians. I guess that might be called planting seeds. I converse with the supermarket checkout operators just to have a chance to bring a blessing to them. Some of them now know I am a Christian. I can easily bring God into conversations with unsaved family members, neighbours and strangers I stop and talk to in the park—with the leading of the Holy Spirit. I do not adopt a heavy...

The Importance of Unity

  What do you do when you think the Pastor or Senior Leadership Team have got it wrong! A friend was recently talking about a decision made by our Senior Leadership Team (SLT) including the Pastor. We are a small church community, so decisions affect every member there. However, unless directly involved in a programme or initiative the SLT do not know how a decision they make might impact on the on-the-ground day-to-day running of that programme or initiative. It is important to talk to those involved to get their perspective and even in a small church this might not necessarily happen. Having said that, our SLT are generally very good at consulting. So, what do you do if you think it’s an unwise decision? This will of course depend on size of the church, whether the Pastor is a good listener and is prepared to talk about it and I’m sure, many other factors. My perspective is that I do not want to be talking about the Pastor behind his back. I do not want to gossip about him ...

Meeting in Fellowship

  This morning we had one of our fortnightly women’s meetings, called WOF! No, not Warrant of Fitness, although we could all do with a Warrant of Fitness from time to time to see how our spiritual walk is going. It stands for Women of Fellowship. We start with a hot drink and some home baking to eat, with some fruit for those who seek to be a little healthier. Then our leader, one of our pastors, introduces the morning. Following that there is something different each week. We have had a ‘spiritual kit’ handed to us and a discussion of each object, we had a morning to bring something special and show each other while telling the story of why it was special, there may be a speaker or a craft. This morning there was a word game and we each received a journal with encouragement to start a prayer journal. Now I am definitely not a ‘game’ or a ‘craft’ person so those times can seem a little boring to me. However, there is always good fellowship and an opportunity to get to know another ...