Have you ever wanted something so badly only to notice everyone already had it? Maybe for you it’s the opposite. You swore something off, candy for example, only to have it put in front of you every second of the following day? Such is the experience of me giving up candy the day before Valentine’s day. I couldn’t believe how many delicious candy treats I was offered today, actually I can as they are burned into memory. They are the following:
Sweet Hearts (Sweet Tarts shaped like hearts)
Mini Cupcakes
Cookies
Large Reces Heart
Hershey’s Kisses
I’m rarely surrounded by all these sweets. Poor planning on my part. Maybe I should blame lent for not taking the Hallmark holidays into consideration. Aside from lessons in self-discipline and stick-tuit-ness my day was nice. I got to take a little office time off to prepare for going to camp, do laundry, take out the dog. These are things that though I don’t love I find comfort in their mediocrity and simplicity.
In other bad planning news, I changed my e-mail address. There are always some bumps along the way when you do this. However, I experienced more of a median then a bump. Bill and Elise were speaking tonight at youth, I was looking forward to this. Bill had sent me his notes yesterday evening but due to my e-mail change I missed them. When I arrived to the church at 6:30 (with youth group starting in 30 minutes) I realized I missed an e-mail from him and he wanted me to make slides so he could control them when they spoke. Our worship leader also wanted to setup worship songs on his tablet and needed help with the sound…
And that’s why you never change your e-mail….
Consequently I jumped into nerd mode, hunkered down and got the slides done. By God’s grace, no one but the staff knew how stressed I was for about 35 minutes. In the end, the slides didn’t look half bad for 30 minutes of work. I can’t help but think “if only I hadn’t changed my e-mail until next week, I could have not had that stress.”
I’m now nervous to go to Wintercamp this weekend. How is changing my e-mail, or my diet, or… whatever going to effect me this weekend.
It’s a good an humbling reminder that we are always one phone call, conversation, request away from anxiety or worse. We can control when our poor planning catches up with us by trying to plan better. We cannot, however, control when other peoples bad planning effects us. Perhaps this is a good time to remember God, take a breath, say a prayer and leave it in His hands.
God, save us from our poor planning. Amen.
Bryce
