Our family enjoyed a really nice trip to Texas last week…it was so warm. I’ll admit that it can be tough to come back to Minnesota this time of year! And it’s always just tough to get back into the swing of things after a vacation.

This whole week has been a bit of a blur for me- so much work to catch up on, so much stuff to do in general. I tend to always have a full plate of responsibilities. I’m trying to learn how to choose to do less things, but it’s hard especially when my plate is full of things I want to do and the things I don’t want to do I need to do. What is the first thing you neglect when you get too busy? I’m really asking- I’d love to know. Since having Stella I’ve had to come face-to-face with the fact that I have too much to do and too little time. The first thing I dropped was grocery shopping- I just don’t have the time! Unfortunately, my family has to eat. Thank God for grocery pick-up, it’s the only way we can get groceries these days. Then I quit on one of my clients a few weeks ago, I didn’t really enjoy working for her anyways- but I still didn’t want to quit. The reality was, I just didn’t have time to do the work she was giving me to do. Dropping those two things have helped immensely. There are other things that tend to go undone when my plate is too full that I’m not so proud of- I’ll admit that my Bible reading is neglected when I’m busy…then I usually take a day to catch up on all my missed readings later and it just feels like a chore. During really hectic seasons a dedicated prayer time tends to be relegated to a "just before I fall asleep” task, with little enthusiasm or heart. Clearly, when those things aren’t prioritized other matters of ministry fall by the wayside as well.

I thought of this on Wednesday when Susan shared about Peter, who immediately left his nets when Jesus called to him (Matt 4). I cannot say that I have ever “immediately left my net” to follow Jesus… I sometimes struggle to put my net down for 15 minutes to read my Bible. When I really stop to think about it I wonder how I can possibly take for granted the fact that I have the opportunity to communicate directly with the creator of the world… my priorities are wild sometimes! When was the last time you pursued God’s purpose for you as your #1 priority? Susan talked about how we have all gone through some changes this year- some good and some bad- and I think for many of us these changes have set us askew on our direction. This has been a year of incredible stress and change and emotion and so many other things. But instead of stopping to adjust to the changes in our lives sometimes we just need to keep moving and keep pursuing our purpose one step at a time.