Six days into Advent... Friday night... Long day with some difficult pastoral visits and conversations... Is it okay to collapse in a heap six days into Advent? Is it okay to have a night in doing nothing except dinner, watching I'm a Celebrity and catching up with two lots of Eastenders? This is my dining room table, A Friday night mess. Keys, Christmas cards, letters, envelopes, a newspaper I haven't read, a Circuit plan I put a highlighter pen over this morning, an unopened Church Times. Perhaps this is how I am tonight. In a heap!
I am reminded after a busy week it is okay and more than okay to stop and to be refreshed before beginning the journey again. We need stopping points. Motorway signs flash "Tiredness Kills - Take A Break"; we need some light in every day if we are dealing with difficult stuff. A Circuit Steward and I while having a pastoral conversation today enjoyed a fabulously wonderful bacon sandwich in the Village Cafe at Little Common at lunchtime. I know people who cannot stop. I am not one of them. Advent is a time to stop and be as well as journey. If we don't stop we will feel very bad. If we don't stop (note clergy people reading this) if we don't stop when we can, what state will we be in come Christmas Day?
So, my friends reading this I will leave the mess on my table until tomorrow. I will leave writing Sunday services and preparing an Advent Bible Study or two until tomorrow. And I will not feel bad about it.
God, help me to stop when I need to. When life is busy and energy is fading, when demands are too many, when issues that bombard me are one too many, when people are demanding an immediate response, give me courage to say no, I am having some time for me, I will respond to you, but when I can. In the stopping time, give me your peace. In the stopping, shower me with refreshment, sleep, calm, rebalance. If I keep on keeping on, what use will I be to anyone, and I will moan I have so much to do and feel completely knackered! God of activity and God of rest, help me know when to work and when to rest. Assure me the mess on the table will not grow bigger if I leave it overnight and that tomorrow when I feel more active I can deal with it more effectively. Amen.
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