Ever since the
4th commandment, the writing’s been in stone—people need a rest. To the Jew, who knew Genesis, Saturday
(a.k.a. the 7th day) was the Sabbath, that is a day of rest. It was the day God
rested from making everything and told His people to do the same. Christians adopted the 1st day of the week
for rest and as a weekly Easter celebration. The weekend was born. Millenniums later, Sunday is held as a day of
rest and worship and I believe it still works for most—but not me.
Sunday is my
busiest day. Typical Sundays take me
from 7 a.m. with prep for that day’s worship service to midnight with prep for
NEXT weeks sermon (my best sermon prep happens a week in advance). So Monday is my Sabbath. I could choose another day, but frankly, I
need the day after Sunday to recharge.
Then I tend to be on for the next six days with a wide range of delightful duties.
I have found this job has some minimum
requirements that simply mean working 6 days and roughly 40 hours a week. To me, this is manageable as long as I get a
Sabbath. After 19 years I can honestly
say people have respected my day off—for the most part. My still least-liked phrase is, “Hey Todd, I
know it’s your day off, but…” now I want
to be clear, if the “but”, is followed by “so and so died” or “…is in the
hospital”, I NEED TO KNOW THIS 24/7.
CALL AND OR TEXT MY CELL REGARDLESS.
Pastors are on call for emergencies (so are elders when pastors are on
vacation).
I’d really like
everything else to wait until Tuesday.
Emails and phone calls will still come, but won’t be opened or returned
until Tuesday or after. I still try to
maintain a 24 hour return of calls/texts to my cell phone policy with that
said.
As I said
earlier, this has not been a big issue and I don’t want it to be, which is why
I’m addressing it. The last 19 years
have been wonderful working adventures, and I pray the next ones will be even
better-just so you know.
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