If you are a faithful reader to this blog, you know that I haven't been posting as much as I normally do in a given week. I keep thinking I should be writing posts about this or that, but then, I don't find words to write them.
I could easily blame it on the craziness of the upcoming summer season at church, or our recent move to a new home (coming home to a house project every night after work), or a variety of other things. But, I won't.
Instead, I would just say that it is because I have wanted to be quiet.
Seems kind of odd for a leader, who is always up front, speaking out, being asked to do things in a public way to embrace a period of quiet. "Isn't it your job," you might say, "to be speaking as much as you can in forums wherever you can for the good of the cause which you support?"
Yes, it is my job to do these things and I try my hardest to be faithful to the public relations hat I am asked to wear. But at the same time, it is also my job to be authentic as a leader: to speak only what is real, what is truthful, what I am compelled to say instead of just filling up the airwaves with words for the sake of words.
Authentic ministry is the kind that lasts, I believe. Instead, what I see in pastors and other service oriented professionals is burn-out and lots of it. We keep speaking and speaking from a level that is not truly who we are anymore. And, what's right with this??
There is a time to speak, and there is a time to listen, isn't there?
It's not that I'm being overly reflective or introspective (for these have faults of their own), but just quiet. Or at least trying to be.
I am glad for the gift this intention is. . . . of doing only what needs to be done and nothing more . . . of seeking to hold on to what is good and let the rest fall away . . . of having brain space to listen for places where new insight longs to come in my life and in the lives of those in whom I seek to shepherd as their pastor.
So, come be with me, if you'd like in my quiet and know that I'm grateful for your support on this journey no matter if many words are shared between us or not.
I hear the birds singing now.
