A pace that can be Sustained

I love being involved in ministry. I love watching hearts grasp onto truth and to change. I love seeing tears when someone who doesn't feel loved, catches a glimpse of Love.

In the summer, I ran summer programs for a church. It was quite the intense summer! I put my heart into it. We expanded on the ministries of the previous year and I saw my leadership position of one as mentoring the leaders under me rather than running every aspect of the program. I put in a ton of hours to a ministry I loved. A crisis hit one week which required an abnormal amount of hours to an already intense week. Long meetings plus regular camp duties, preparation. Plus that was leading up to our final week and celebration sunday, and I had to cram preparing for a service and a talk into an insanely intense week.

But that summer only lasted a few weeks. The pace was crazy. But it ended.

My new position as program director is one that is different. It must be sustainable for the long haul. Yet I started with a pace that seemed more intense than the busy summer! I wasn't going to make a terrific program, but the best program ever! My days included 10-12 hour shifts and weekends left me unable to do anything but sleep to catch up from the short nights and intensity of the previous week.

The intense pace wasn't entirely my fault. December is the busyiest month in the life of a programs director in a retirement home. Evening events were planned ahead of time and required my attendance. The new year needed to be planned.

This thursday, i had enough free time that I was able to tackle the lack of organization in my office. The piles of paper had been grating on me. so has been the boxes of stuff that take up space with no utility value. Thursday was the first time since I started this position that I was able to have some downtime.

While I cleaned, the words of a mentor kept going through my mind - "You need to set a pace that is sustainable". I might want the best program ever and might want to through my heart into making it happened. But I have been hired for the long term. They need me to run programs in the spring, after the intense Christmas period. I can't have a breakdown or be forced to rest because I went at this job with a speed that I can't maintain.

Decisions need to be made NOW so that I can keep up a pace that is sustainable. That is my new years resolution. To keep a pace of a life that I can sustain. No more 10-12 hour days. No more running around like a chicken with its head cut off. No more keeping a pace with no or little down time. No more crashing on the weekends just so that I can make it through the next week.