getting ready

I am getting ready for many things.
First of all, I am getting ready for Thanksgiving. This year we are renting three cains in the woods and going to have a very different holiday. Less stress supposedly as we are having a simpler meal. Right now all I can think of is - what do I need to pack? what are we going to eat? what are we going to do? And the fear is that we will get down there and not have enough.
Is this living out of scarcity? Probaly - the pull of the simple is at odds with the fear of not having enough. Anyway, what to bring is taking up a lot of space in my head.

And I am getting ready for Sunday service. I will be preaching something that I am calling my signature sermon. And it is a review of the life of the church - and a look ahead to the next year.
Not too much to ask of myself. And trying to attach it to the book of this week, which is the book of Daniel. The bulletin will be completed today and I need to make sure that it is okay.
And the sermon notes - for a sermon that is yet to be written.

And we as a church are getting ready for Advent. We have put together an advent devotional. We had people from the church write daily readings based upon the four themes of the weeks and scriptures that I had selected. Yesterday we printed them all out and I read through the whole thing and thought it was wonderful. How cool is this that we actually did it! And today we have a group that are literally putting it together.

And Sunday we decorate the church for Advent.

And at the same time I am thinking ahead to 2008. I have this really interesting idea about a "story telling project" for the year that would involve Sermons, shut ins and the sermon inserts.
More about that later.

Preparing is important to everything that I do - I just hope that I don't miss the moment in all the planning and thinking ahead.