A Struggle to Make This a "Holy Week"

I have often said that Holy Week is to pastors what April 15th is to CPAs. And this year they fall on the same week! At the most holiest time of the year, I feel the most stressed. 4 services to prepare, a huge Easter Egg Hunt, logistics, newsletter articles, blog writing, Lenten Lunch, two new members and a baptism, and oh, did I mention 4 services to prepare? On top of that, the school system thought this would be a great week for Spring Break! Not that I am complaining (ok, maybe just a little). I love this time of year. Ironically, I love the passion, the agony, the sorrow, the depths that then leads to new life, a new day, a new creation. It's a true privilege to have the opportunity to craft 4 services that speak to all these emotions, and to try to do it in a way that is creative, meaningful, powerful.

But all too often the list of things to do and the need to "produce" those bulletins, liturgy, and sermons takes it toll. I so want to truly engage this week, sit with it, listen and experience the lows and the highs, but the time constraints often strangle out the contemplative side I long to experience in Holy Week. Every year I promise myself it will be different. I will do everything ahead of time so when I get to this week I can breathe a little easier. But every year, it never works out like that. The copier breaks down, staff get sick, I get sick, or like this year, three funerals in the last two weeks consume any extra time I had.

I am then faced with a choice every year. I can throw up my hands and give up trying to experience any sense of holy in one of the craziest, busiest weeks of a pastor's year. Or I can seek the holy in the midst of the preparation, the crazy, busy logistics, the pouring out of my heart and soul as these four services are molded and crafted by the Holy Spirit through me.

It's not easy, being attentive to the Holy with a list-of-things-to-do a mile long. But then again, it's never easy, is it? If I waited until I had an extra hour of free time to truly commune with God, it would never happen! If it was only on retreat that I felt God's presence, I would only experience it once a year! The struggle is to see God in the every day, in every person, in every situation. To sit back at the dinner table every day and ask yourself, "Where did I see God today?" To see the Holy weaving itself throughout the minutia of ordinary life.

Whatever you are going through this week, God the Holy One is right there. Look, seek, be attentive to the Holy in your midst: in the doctor's office, at the grocery store, in the Spring cleaning, at work, in the kitchen, in the yard, running errands, changing diapers, being a taxi service for your family. Set a timer on your cell phone or watch and when it goes off ask yourself, "Where is God right here and now in this situation?"

After all, every week is holy. Every place is holy. Every situation is holy. Because God is there. Nothing else is needed.