Something was off yesterday, maybe it was the weather. Maybe it was me. Maybe it was that my wife was gone. Maybe it was because it was Graduation Sunday. Maybe it was because I obsessed about the message. Maybe I should just get to my musings … 

-Sometimes as a pastor, and probably in other positions as well, you just do what you have to do some things even if it is not your strength or preference. I had to do a lot of that last week.

-I really wanted people to hear the message yesterday and apply it in their relationships. I was excited to preach this message on “believing” in others. I must confess that low attendance at both churches put me in a funk. That is all on me, I am praying that in spite of me the message landed in their hearts and heads and that today they will pass it on.

-My wife was a few hours away taking care of our two youngest grandkids so that our daughter and son in law could attend a marriage retreat. She had a blast. I am so happy she could go and help and spend time with two of the cutest little girls on the planet. I missed her.

-I had the privilege on Friday evening to give the Invocation and Benediction for the graduation ceremony of a local College of Nursing. What a joy to celebrate that accomplishment of such a great group. They will be dramatically impacting our community for decades.

-Our 5:30 am prayer time continues to impact me. God sure is saying a lot to me lately. Even after all these years I have a lot to learn. What are you learning?

-We had some sound and technical glitches at both churches yesterday. Nothing big, just your regular stuff that happens and you cannot really anticipate. People handled it well and I don’t think it distracted much at all from the services.

-I loved praying over, and celebrating with our high school and college grads yesterday.

-There is a pattern I follow when my wife is gone for a couple of days when it comes to food. I tend find a way to purchase some junk food and consume it all. I didn’t do much of that this time, except for the chips and dip, and the candy bars and the ice cream bars. The good news is that I didn’t finish any of those things, at least not until she got home last night. Come to think of it, maybe I didn’t do so well. 

-A couple of quotes from Mark Batterson’s “Draw the Circle” keep rattling around in my soul in recent days. “Don’t lose heart. Don’t lose hope. Don’t lose faith. Don’t lose patience.” And, “To pray or not to pray. Those are the only options.” And, “our problem isn’t overclaiming the promises of God; it’s underclaiming them.”

-One of the verses from this coming Sunday’s sermon is “the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve”. We will be applying it to building our relationships. Can you guess the word we will be focusing on this Sunday? This will be a part of the series “7 Building Blocks of Great Relationships”.

-I am a piler when it comes to paperwork on my desk. I generally know where things are and if no one else messes with it I can find what I need very quickly. It drives my wife crazy, but she has learned that it is part of my method. However, at the moment my desk is too messy even for me. Time to do a little shoveling. 

-The heat came on in the house last week even though it was set at 62. Starting today it will be hard not to turn on the air conditioning. Got to love the changing weather in the Midwest.

Here’s hoping you get some reminders this week that someone believes in you and that you find opportunities to encourage someone else.

Dennis