Sleeping on Saturday Nights

It's the main difference between being at work and being on sabbatical: I sleep on Saturday nights!

It started almost nine years ago -- that writing-my-sermon-on-Sunday-morning thing. Oh, the first few months I had a sermon ready before the end of the week, but as my weekly schedule filled up the sermon writing kept getting postponed. Somewhere along the way, making a conscious decision to never sacrifice any family time (because I couldn't get my work time "together"), I decided that Sunday mornings would be a pretty good time to write. When I first started this crazy thing, it was sometimes 4:30 a.m. that I'd stop by the Exxon for a cup of coffee, and then unlock my office door... It's usually about 6:00 a.m. that I arrive nowadays.

Understand, it's not as if I show up on Sunday and only then start THINKING about what to say. I've been doing that all week. Reading... Studying... Preparing the bulletin... Thinking (when I should be sleeping). And, I do try to have an introduction written before I leave the office, usually on Friday... It's just that the whole thing doesn't come together until Sunday a.m.

And, though I've gotten very comfortable with this, and can say that I've learned to enjoy the "freshness" that such an approach gives to sermon writing, it is somthing I'd like to change about my weekly schedule.

Maybe a sabbatical will help?

Push back the email... schedule the meetings a little more strategically... close the office door... JUST DO IT, starting by, say, Thursday... (We'll see.)

And it's not just for the Sunday morning, it's-time-to-write-that-sermon, preachers that Saturdays are bad for sleeping. Amy doesn't do any better. I think this is part of the job -- seems to be a common Saturday theme for preachers I know.

Anyway, the last two Sunday mornings I've waked up and realized -- I slept all night. Saturday! What a novel idea.

I think I could get used to this.