Personal Log 3.23.23 "System Refresh"
So this is my first blog in a while as I've been busy, most of my time is now taking care of my elderly mom; some days it's 12 - 14 hours of care then I spend 6 hours getting everything else done, sometimes not hitting the bed until 2 or 2:30 am. That leaves 4 hours for sleep. 4 hours... I'm not complaining though, I promised my parents that they would never be put into a [senior care] home & they appreciated that. I think it would kill them if that happened so they have the peace knowing that somehow they will be taken care of & when they die, they die at home & not in some sterile, unfamiliar place. It is physically & emotionally taxing though so I'm spending more time in Scripture, in prayer & keeping my focus on Jesus. Let me just clarify something though: they're not on their deathbed or anything like that, they still have a call on their lives, especially my mom, there's things for her yet to do...
I’ve been involved in the Men’s Group for several years now & in what spare time I have I’m writing a series called “the Men of the Bible”, since October of 2022 we’ve studied Mordecai & Gideon, right now we’re on Jonah & after that it will be Eli. I’m looking at books like Titus, Philemon, Jude & James, which I studied in – depth last night. I didn’t realize the parallels between the Book of James, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes & the Sermon on the Mount before, it just never hit me but last night it did; ‘really interesting stuff…
While I'm writing this blog, I'm listening to my pastor's online sermon from January 8th called "System Refresh".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9Og2MQs-Dk
I’ve been thinking about that lately in regards to so many things: ministry… life… etc, etc. It’s good to often take a hard yet honest look at things & pray about a “system refresh” in whatever area may need one. If something is old & stale, it may need to be stirred up a little, for example:
On my daily driver pc, I upgraded from Linux Mint 17 to Linux Mint 20 as 17 was getting old, freezing up on both websites & internal programs, etc. 20 is much better w/ integrated OBS & the Jitsi Meet desktop app, Skype desktop app, Zoom, etc. It was just a shot in the arm to get rid of the old & go w/ the new. On a couple of other pcs, I’ve installed MX Linux & AV Linux, both of which are fantastic distros & I’m using them more & more. Something different, something new…
In ministry, the Men’s Group needed a little shaking up; so I tried something different by moving it from twice a month on a weeknight to every Sunday morning, then creating a virtual meeting on Wednesday evenings for those who cannot make it Sunday mornings (the worship team, younger guys, the greeters, etc). I think it breathed new life into the ministry; it needed a “system refresh”.
Those two words have been on me this last week as I’m looking at other things. I’ve realized that sometimes, in some cases, things just need a good shakeup. All of us can get locked into a certain [comfortable] way of doing things: life, family, marriage, service, ministry (youth, kids, greeting, worship, men’s, women’s, seniors, preaching/teaching, communion, prayer), songwriting, chord progressions, etc & sometimes it gets old & yes, it takes more effort to turn the wheel to get out of the ruts in the road but I believe it’s worth it.
Lastly, I’m considering more video – oriented things like vlogging, music instruction, music videos & all that jazz. It scares me; I like being behind the camera, behind the scenes, etc but to grow you need to get out of your comfort zone & take a chance.
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