I can’t believe it! Our baby is growing up so fast! Today Adriana and I took Claudia to Nyack College on her very first college visit. She was really impressed by the friendly community atmosphere on campus. While there we also had the opportunity to take our friend Rebecca, one of our former Shelter Rock Church students, out for lunch. She is wrapping up her freshman year and is having a wonderful experience at Nyack. It was great re-connecting with her!
Yesterday I took the day off so Adriana and I spend some time together. We went on two dates. First we went for lunch in Port Jefferson at The Steam Room where we enjoyed a delicious clam bake over a scenic view of the Long Island Sound. Then this evening we went to Huntington and participated in our second Paint Nite. It was a wonderful day with my best friend!
Last week while on our New York City mission trip I received the sad news that one of my dear friends, Jennifer, had passed away after a long battle with cancer. I returned home from our mission trip on Thursday at 2pm, and by 4pm I was on the road driving up to the Rochester, NY area for her funeral.
Jen and I were the class clowns of our youth group back in the day. She was one of the funniest human beings I ever knew. I have many wonderful memories of laughing hysterically with her. She loved life. She loved people. She loved to make people laugh. She genuinely cared about people. Even as she battled cancer, she maintained her sense of humor, and was always trying to encourage others. She gave everything she had without expecting anything in return. And Jen was a fighter. At the funeral, the minister said, “Jen did not want to die. She did not want to die – not because she was afraid of death, but because she wanted to be here with you.” How true. She squeezed every drop out of life and gave until she could give no more. Although I am glad she is now at rest, I will miss my friend. But the good news is that this is not really “Goodbye,” but rather, “I’ll see you later.” #CancerSucks
Does this cartoon ring true for you? It does for me. I have found that I often need pressure to get things done. I find that I thrive when I am faced with a ticking clock. But I know it’s not the best thing for me or those around me if I am constantly living under pressure. It’s not good for my health, it’s not good for my relationships, and it’s not always best in terms of producing quality work. I have found that the challenge is to create a sense of urgency in which I can thrive, but which also allows me time to breathe before actual deadlines. This also provides me space to tweak or edit my work in order to submit the best of my work when it is due.
A number of years ago I watched a DVD on time management. One of the things that stuck with me was what author Brian Tracy called a forcing system. He cited Parkinson’s Law which says “work expands or contracts so as to fill the time available for its completion.” The idea was that we will generally take the full amount of time we are given to accomplish the task we are given. For example, if you are given 2 weeks to accomplish an assignment, you will take the full 2 weeks to finish it. If you are given 1 week to accomplish that same assignment, you will do whatever you need to do to finish it within the week. One of the things you can do in order to relieve the constant pressure of last-minute panic is to create deadlines for yourself which will force you to accomplish your tasks before they are actually due. For example, if you have a paper or a project due on Monday, make it your goal to finish it on Friday or Saturday. You will breathe easy for a couple of days knowing it’s done, or if you realize something could be improved, you still have time to make any minor adjustments to enhance your work without feeling that you don’t have time to do so.
I have found this to be true whether I am planning an event or preparing a sermon. I am not perfect at it, and I find myself up against the ropes more times that I care to admit. But whenever I am able to create a forcing system I find that I am able to relax more, and it causes me to be a more healthy leader.
This coming weekend we are taking our students away for the weekend for Youth Winter Fest – a weekend retreat where over 400 students from churches all over our area will gather together for an encounter with God, and to deepen relationships. I believe there is tremendous power is disconnecting from the everyday, ordinary to connect with God and others in an extraordinary way. A little over a year ago I shared 5 different types of retreats that I find are very significant and meaningful. Here they are:
Today my eldest child turned 17! Happy Birthday Claudia!!!!
In an effort to express our faith in and dependance on God, to be more intentional about praying specifically for one another, and to grow in encouragement this year, I came up with the idea to create Prayer and Encouragement Journals for each member of our family. The idea is simple. Whenever we feel led to pray for or share an encouraging word with one another, in addition to expressing our care verbally, each person is invited to write their prayer or word of encouragement in the journal of the person they are thinking about and praying for. My hope is that these books will be a way for us deepen our heart-to-heart connections, and that as we read them, the journals will serve as a resource to uplift, inspire, and infuse us with hope. Maybe you’d like to do something similar in your home this year.
REVKEVJR.COM 