This is the last day of the first month of my sabbatical--one-third over all ready. It also happens to be my mother's birthday and Mardi Gras--Fat Tuesday. Sabbatical time use and the marking of time is on my mind now that I've only two months of my sabbatical left. During the past month I've rearranged my schedule to do different things, but it hasn't been as easy as I thought it might be. The beginning of Lent, oddly enough, has brought to mind a time-use discipline that will help. I'm giving up FaceBook for Lent, but I'm picking up a daily post to this blog.In the reallocation of time that I'm experiencing during my sabbatical time, it's this difference in my use of time that is proving to be the most challenging. Without the rhythm of a 50-hour work week since February 1, it has seemed that my weekly discipline of time use is up-ended. I find it harder than I thought to change habits that have been my practices for so long. What use of time is the best, now that I don't have to commute, study to prepare a weekly sermon, call on parishioners, design weekly worship? All those seemingly mundane tasks are where I've found the practice of the presence of God as my calling as a solo pastor. When all that is gone, it seems like there are vast expanses of time to be filled, with vast choices for how to do it, but very little guidance on how to make those choices. So where is God now?
Discipline in the use of time has never been my strong suit, but this is where my sabbatical challenge is now, for remaining two months until May 1.
The season of Lent has always been the church's time to call to mind the reorientation of one's life to God. This is the root of the practice of foregoing something for Lent, to make room for something else, something that will keep one's attention to God. So it is with the use of time.
So celebrate Fat Tuesday with all your heart, and use it as a time marker to make tomorrow a different kind of day. Nothing like the present to make a change for the future
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