Yesterday morning, the Sunday sexton called in to say he would be out with a bad case of the flu so the ushers and I had to remember to do everything he usually does (unlocking the front gate, turning on lights, etc. etc.) — of course we forgot a few things. The sanctuary hadn’t been put back together again after the wedding the night before, and the Board chair and I had to scramble around moving furniture. The treasurer came up from the basement to tell us that the sump pumps had stopped working and we had four inches of water down there. Of course I had a meeting before and after the worship service. Spent the afternoon wading through some of the scores of email messages that had accumulated in my absence. Youth group in the evening. Long day.

It’s like when you go swimming in a cold lake. You know if you try to wade in and slowly get acclimated to the water, you’ll never make it in, and you’ll just get cold. So you dive right and and immediately begin swimming as hard as you can to get warmed up.