Hello everyone!
Before we dive into things, if you still read this blog in spite of my near constant leaves of absence, then you deserve a medal. By all means, download the image above, print it out, and hang it on your refrigerator!
The reason for such an extended absence of course is the work load of seminary in the third term. By this point in the year, I had spent about as much energy in school as I think I could handle, and was literally struggling to keep afloat. The reading load for this last class was intense. The paper that was due took me through familiar feelings of self-loathing, followed by lightbulbs, followed by a cutting room experience, followed by submitting the paper and walking away from it all. The problem this time was that after submitting the paper, there was another final coming. This term felt like being at the ocean after a hurricane. The waves just wouldn't stop coming.
But all of that said, Thursday, it all came to a close. As I walked away from the final exam, I was fairly convinced I could probably have done better. But it didn't matter. It was done. Thursday I drove home and felt at least 35 pounds lighter, crawled into bed, and let the break begin.
The break begins with a concept that I've talked about before here on the J-Blog, the day of Jubilee! I actually stole it from the great Television show The West Wing, where the white house staffers throw a day of jubilee after accomplishing a feat of tremendous effort and accomplishment. You can't have a day of jubilee because you summoned the strength to vacuum the carpet. No, this event can only follow completing an event that would have killed a lesser person. It seemed uniquely suited for the end of a term of seminary.
It's not really different than any other day. Yesterday, I started by going to work. But I went to work with a bounce in my step, because it was the day of jubilee. I met with folks and taught them how to use the new video cameras we got, but I did so with an extra dollop of gratitude because today was the day of jubilee. We hung out with the kids at Chick-Fil-A and got into a spitball war when we got home, but I didn't let it bother me when they soaked my shirt with cups of water (man, what a weird job I have) because it was the day of jubilee. Yesterday was made even more special by family who had come in from out of town. We celebrated at my parents house on the patio with way too much food. It was a great day of jubilee.
My message I suppose in all of this is to remember to take the time to celebrate big accomplishments. I think too much in our culture we're moving on to the next event in our mind before we've really stopped to think about what we've accomplished. So don't let that happen to you. Take a few moments and have yourself a day of jubilee, celebrate the accomplishments in your life by even just having a normal day highlighted by celebration. It does wonders.
Tomorrow, we'll break down the day of silence!
Welcome back!
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