Losing Your Head

I was very distracted at worship Sunday. The lessons didn't help, especially the beheading of John the Baptizer. But in the final analysis, it wasn't anything at church that was the cause of my lack of focus. It was disruption at home.

I'm not an order freak, though I do like things in their place--principally so I can find them easily. Dirt and dust don't bother me too much, especially now that I'm the "housekeeper." But things in disarray and clutter bug me a lot. And right now, there is a fair amount of disarray. We're redoing a bedroom/playroom and I'm building shelves in my closet.

The redoing has required removal of the furniture. So first I attempted to sell it through the neighborhood newsletter. Got rid of one piece. I moved one piece out myself to refinish it for my closet and then decided to just build shelves. Finally, called the Salvation Army truck. But each time something was moved, a bunch of other stuff had to be moved so it could be wrangled out of the room, and then through the small den and out the door.

With these projects humming, I was also trying to continue my outdoor projects, prepare notes for teaching a new course at the Seminary in the fall and more and more. I felt overwhelmed, and I noticed, under appreciated.

This was the mindset I took to church. I confess I prayed for peace both for me and for Carol who had a bad experience at work that threw her into a tailspin for days. But, as I said, I wasn't very focused on worship so little wonder the peace seemed to elude me. Only later did the story of John losing his head creep into my world.

John's in jail for ticking off the higher ups. He's worried that Jesus may not be who he thought he was--even sends some followers to check up. And then, John loses his head. Literally. "Jeez," I thought, "John really had it bad. And me? Just crap that will ultimately be taken care of, go away, or won't matter."

Peace comes in funny ways.

Jerry+