When I was little, I thought I knew how to do the buffet. You see what you want, you take some, and then you move on to the next thing you want, right?
Sort of.
If you see some good salad or pasta or soup or processed over-salted meat product, and you get a good amount like a normal meal, you'll fail. You can't get just as much of everything as you always do; you'll never be able to eat it all. The trick, I've found, is to take just a taste of everything that looks good. That way if something's fantastic you can just go get more. And things that aren't that good? Well, you don't have to eat a lot because you only grabbed a little.
I made my friend a list of my current commitments. Doing so, I realized I had stacked up at the buffet. Here are the entrees I am enjoying:
- Leading worship
- Directing a college ministry
- Mentoring 4 students
- Developing a basic intro to the Bible curriculum
- Creating a small group experience on personal Bible devotion/prayer
- Attempting to co-create curriculum/assignments for my grad school class
- Preaching at church
- Training for a quickly approaching half-marathon
And aside from that I want to have a vibrant prayer life, blog meaningful material, play around with music and video software, and participate in life-giving social events.
It's possible I need more than one plate. It could be too much goodness for one trip through the buffet line. Either that, or I need to find the best way to make each of these small bites instead of giant portions.
At this point I've signed up for what I have, and I'm interested to see how it turns out. And honestly, I'm not too concerned.
I think next semester I need to employ the advanced buffet technique learned in the 301 course: Eating the Best Without Blowing Up. Instead of grabbing a plate and heaping up, you bypass the plates, survey all of the options, and pair them up. You don't want to end up with all meats, or all salads, or not have room for dessert. Similarly, I don't want to have a bad balance. I want my activities to complement one another for a healthy balance.
The good news is I am a different person than I was 6 months ago. I don't think I would have taken this much on back then, mostly because I would be afraid of how much effort it would take. I'm interested to see how much I can healthily take on. I'm sure it's more than I've done before, but not sure where the threshold is.
I'm thinking dropping something will be the equivalent of loosening my belt. I'm not anticipating that, but I'd be silly not to think it may be necessary. I hope my friends will keep me healthy and in check. But I'm going to have to make time to allow them to do so. Accountability always has to be allowed for it to work.
Tonight I'll simmer in the possibilities, consider goals, directions, etc. And, more importantly, I'll commit all these ways to the LORD. If I'm not being called to all of them, I can't expect them all to succeed. A man decides his way in his heart; but it is the LORD who directs his steps.
I'll let the LORD fill my plate.
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