A lot of work got done today...

Today I stayed home with Elliana and Mallory, who are both recovering from their recent stint with sickness. Mallory is doing a lot better, but Elliana had a rough first part of the day. She woke up still feeling sick, and laid on the upstairs couch until 11:00, when we moved downstairs, so she could lay on the couch down there while I worked. She was watching a movie while I was working, but when the movie was finished I didn’t hear a little girl ask for a new movie. Why? She had fallen asleep on the couch, with Mallory running around and me working. Now, this never happens. So I took her up to her room and she slept until three.

Mallory also took a long nap, which gave me a great opportunity to get some work done, and amazingly I got a lot completed. I wrapped up a couple assignments for school, changed to a new e-mail program on my computer, scheduled my tax appointment, made a bunch of phone calls, returned e-mails, and figured out what I’m going to be talking about on Wednesday night. It was a real productive day. It’s amazing what I can accomplish when no one is around.

Now I don’t mind a day like this once in a while, a day when you crank through a lot of open items on your to do list. The reason I was able to do this was because no one was around. Like I said, it was good to do this today, but I need people around. I like to have conversations with people, catching up on what is happening in their life. I like to have an open door policy, which means I get less physical work done, but more conversations happen. People have asked me, “Why don’t you close your door?” While this would allow me to get more things done, I would lose my connection with people, and that is one thing I’m not willing to give up. In ministry you need to connect with people, and that means my door will always be open – even if that means I get less done. But maybe I get more done.