Roll with the punches.
Go with the flow.
Things don’t always go as planned.
As a pastor, I tend to live these cliche phrases.
I had grand plans for today. I had a Zumbro River conference meeting [a monthly meeting of pastors in the same geographical conference which includes worship, a program, and lunch] in Rochester. Then I was going to go home to the office and write my sermon for Sunday along with a newspaper article, a November newsletter, and plan a care center service for Sunday.
I sit in a Starbucks just outside of the Methodist Hospital in Rochester. With one visit of a parishioner behind me, now I wait for another parishioner to get out of surgery. Ministry is not one that can be planned.
Sure, I can plan a Sunday in which the third graders will receive Bibles. [Oh, hey, PL, you should get that on the calendar soon.] I can plan Sunday morning worship and plan curriculum for the Sunday school kids. But when it come to the day-to-day and to the activities that fill a given period of time in my work week, it’s all up for grabs. Who knows what will happen.
Along with the cliches above, people will often say that ministry happens in those times that are not planned. Ministry happens in the interruptions. [I hate to say that visiting people in the hospital is an interruption. It’s not in the negative sense but simply in the not-always-planned sense.]
That – in addition to simply poor planning on my part – is why I will once again spend my weekend writing my sermon and doing other work tasks. One of these days, I will not work on my weekend. One of these days. [I told this to Marilyn. She laughed at me.]
In other news, I still am not a fan of hospitals. The Mayo system both scares and intimidates me. Pretty sure I rode in a staff elevator earlier. So confused.
[Oh. And as a follow up to excuse me? I would also like to share with you that the mayor of Blooming is aware of my single state which seems to be some sort of disease here. “Well, we’ll have to find her a man,” is what he told another. Oh, Mr.Mayor.]
there's no place like gnome. 
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