the swings of ministry

Today, I said goodbye to a giant of faith. A man who nurtured me from the earliest days of my faith journey. Although there was a great sense of celebration for his life and for the new adventure on which he has now embarked, the pain I felt was physical. I believe wholeheartedly that he is already receiving his reward but it hurts to let go. And, though I know he is now even more present, as part of that cloud of unseen witnesses, I am not yet ready to receive the comfort that that promises.
I felt the chill of loss blow keenly as I moved on from that to my next appointment of the day - supervision.
Part of the work I did in supervision was a review of Advent and Christmas and it was good to process some of the issues around all the exhausting work involved in that and the wonderful gift that crept in along with the Christ child - just in the nick of time.
The train journey home afforded some time to put together an outline for a talk I was giving to the church Guild tonight about my visits to the States, both work and pleasure.
When I got home there was just time to illustrate the talk with some pictures and then go and deliver it. It was fun to recall the many good friends and opportunities that I've had there - and I also shared plans for my next trip.
Someone asked me where I get my energy from - if they could see me now!!
It's been quite a day.
In many ways, just another typical day in ministry with highs and lows and huge emotional swings.
Tomorrow is another day, and will, I'm sure, be fueled as was today by the God of boundless energy and watched over by those saints of God, among whom tonight is a very special giant for me.