Usually, when I blog instead of working on a sermon, it's because I'm stuck. It's because inspiration has failed to show up for work that day, or because I can't seem to get my thoughts sorted out. Today things are different. I know exactly what I'm going to say - I know the direction of my sermon, have ideas about flow and transition, and even have some anecdotes/illustrations picked out. But I just can't seem to muster up the energy to put it all down on paper.
It's hard to get my brain moving this morning.
I spent 20 hours in a car this week - two round-trip drives to Des Moines, Iowa. I watched the legal system at work, with all of the ups and downs that go with trial procedure. I waited and hoped for both mercy and justice. I ate way way way too much and never quite got comfortable in the car. There's a lot of relief that has come with getting back home for good, but it's disorienting. Disorienting to finally have an end to five months of uncertainty. Disorienting to have spent more hours in a car than at work this week. Disorienting to have to fit half a week's worth of work into one day. Disorienting to have slept in too many different beds. Disorienting to come home and to pick up where things left off around here.
And so I'm not getting much done around here today. I'm trying to nail down details for the youth trip to Denver that happens in another three weeks. I'm trying to get things organized for a car wash fundraiser this Sunday. And I'm trying to finish a sermon for Sunday.
I'm sermonizing on what it means to gather around - to be gathered by - Christ. What it means to orient our lives and our worship and our fellowship around Christ instead of around ourselves. And what it means to believe Jesus when he makes outrageous claims, instead of laughing at him. All of this disorientation over the past week puts me in a place to take to heart my sermon claim that our lives should be oriented around our faith, and not the other way around.
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