Summer is my favorite time of year. I don’t mind the heat, and since I am virtually assured of a zero percent chance of snow, I’m good all season long. I love Summer. I get to minister at my favorite camp. I get to spend some time at the beach. It’s a real blessing, but there is one drawback. If I am going to be away, I need to do a bit more advance preparation, especially with the added work load brought on my COVID, online services, etc.
Now to be clear, I am not complaining. It is a great privilege to do what I do and I love it. Studying God’s Word and writing are two things I really love to do. Still preparation does require me to stay on task. My study needs to me on point. I need to find some extra time to do the advance work, so I can enjoy the time out.
Here’s what I recommend. Focus and pray. I have never had God leave me hanging and He always provides. This isn’t a matter to pressing into workaholic mode and working in my own strength, not that that doesn’t get tempting, but the Lord is the strength of my ministry and He is faithful to deliver. You can trust Him to do that too.
Prepare as far in advance as you can. Now I know a lot of this in ministry is dependent on the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and the people God places before you deserve better than you just “phoning it in” For this reason prayer is especially urgent. One more thing. One of the greatest lies creative people tell ourselves is we work best under pressure. NO WE DON’T! The truth is we procrastinated and now we’re making up for wasted time. Doing the wrk throughout with a rested mind is the far better move.
Tune out the distractions. This is not time to get embroiled in the latest Facebook controversy, as a matter of fact this is the time to get a little anti-social with social media and unplug. Put the remote down and pick up the Word, and right after you’re done reading this post, get back to your preparation (thanks for reading though).
Finally, prioritize. Figure out what needs to be done and what can wait. You might have noticed last week I got a little behind on my posts. The reason for that is simple, I was speaking twice a day at a camp, and even though I had done a lot of advance preparation. There is a level of preparation that needs to happen just before I speak. I had to be okay with that squeezing this out for a while. Now if I had a little more time, the best thing I could have done was write five extra posts and schedule them for the busier days. The problem with that is there are only so many hours in a day, which brings us to our last point.
Rest! No one can do their best work on an empty tank. Sooner or later (and usually at the wrong time) it will catch up with you. Be prepared and do your best work. It’s all about preparation.
AMOKArts 