It really is amazing how quickly a day off can be taken away.
Now, for pastors, notable exceptions may be funerals and emergencies that involve hospital visits, family care and general loving care in the name of our God.
But it all starts when a meeting is scheduled for a day-off night- in this case, a Monday, and then it is easy to be coerced into more...
Well, Pastor, since you'll be there for x meeting (did I say I was going to be there? I must have) the can we meet about y as well, it will only take 20 minutes or so. And since you will be there for x and y we should meet about z. (How long is z?) well, we just need to meet for a bit about z.
Sigh. Getting cornered after worship on Sundays, when I'm flying high on coffee looking forward only to a nap... I'll agree to anything to get out of the church door I guess.
It is, indeed, a slippery slope. Now it's off to church for the evening! Yipee!
4 comments:
Crappy!
My day away is Friday. This morning's call from the funeral home threatened the 3rd Friday in 6 weeks...I succeeded in pushing the funeral up to Thursday! Victory!
Hope you get some other time away.
oh HG... remember Nancy Reagan's slogan "just say NO"...
i once read about a pastor putting marbles in a glass jar on his desk at the beginning of the year... the marbles represented how many evenings/nights he was willing to be away from his family. every meeting he was called to - out a marble came. people caught on... i haven't done this but i like the plan there ya know?
It's horribly easy to lose those days, isn't it....and I'm beginning to realise that actually I don't have the stamina to work 2 weeks without a break, so need to work out a strategy before I go solo sometime in the next few months.
I'm still in seminary, but I'm trying so hard to be intentional about keeping 24 hours for sabbath time. Between classes and congregational internship and preparing for ordination exams -- I need it!
I've carved out after church to 1pm on Mondays this semester, and so far I've been pretty good about keeping it holy and restful. (knock on wood)
Good luck!
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