Balancing work and the sabbath

For six days you may perform melachah, but the seventh day is a complete Sabbath, holy to the L-RD ... it is an eternal sign that in six days, the L-RD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed. -Exodus 31:15-17

When you work for a church, Sundays tend to be busy and/or stressful and/or exhausting. There's an awful lot going on from the little logistical wrinkles to a congregant's unexpected and deep need.

Many of us take off Monday as a personal sabbath. Some take another day off (knowing that there will be too many loose ends hanging about on Monday...). I'm in the Monday crowd, myself, but I was coming home a wreck every single Sunday. And then I had a Well DUH moment.

What if I really really looked at the WORK of my average Sunday and moved as much of it as I could to another day? As the RE director, obviously, I would still need to love people, to make sure classes were covered, to do the story for all ages-- But there was no need to be making copies, cutting construction paper, freaking about snack supplies--I would definitely be less stressed if I went into every Sunday knowing that the class supplies were 100% ready, my various worship obligations were completely prepared AND printed out AND where I could get them easily. I'm not necessarily the most organized person in the world, so this took more work and rethinking than even I would realize. I'm not all the way there yet, but hey, I have some spare energy this afternoon. Time to go see IronMan2.