The pace of the treadmill is increasing…
When I look at my posting history and see that little solo post on the 17th, I get a bit sad (only a bit). I get about 10-12 ideas a day of things I’d love to write about, little tidbits and shreds of thoughts that would be fun to expand and expound on, but on vacation you don’t really get a minute to think things through. I’m sure none of you mind - and would rather I be enjoying my family right now over taking a quick minute and throwing some thoughts down to ease the blank “December” calendar staring at me every time I check in here. Don’t worry - all are resting as I prepare to preach and teach tonight at a missions base in Orlando. (Of course, now some of you are thinking, “He’s preaching and teaching during his vacation?!” We like it this way, trust me.)
I love vacation and I love resting and enjoying my family - don’t get me wrong. But it is a bit funny to think about the way December works for an “ihopper” - in many ways it’s a four-week sprint to get ready for the Onething conference as well as all of the end of the year planning for 2008 initiatives and events. Then you used to kind of hit that “January lull” when a certain missions base director heads out on his yearly vacation and things kind of…slow down. January tends to be the month where a ton of the key folks head out of town to rest and recover. January doesn’t work great for the FSM / FMA instructors, however, because of the early start date for the semester now with our new-ish modular system.
So what used to be a down (ish) time for IHOP-KC is slowly picking up steam with returning students, classes, and new programs beginning. Life at IHOP used to have swells and lulls based on people traffic ebbing and flowing during different times and seasons. The funny thing about 24/7 is that, beyond the fact that it never stops (people still don’t quite grasp that we go full blast on Christmas and Thanksgiving), as it grows, the activity and pace is beginning to become constant in nature. That’s something to think about - we’re losing our lulls as a larger community and coming into a season of constant traffic and activity - and we have so little anointing or manifest power from God…all we do right now is “not stop” - and “not stopping” is speeding life up significantly.
Because we are arriving at an interesting juncture as an organization and community, it increases the importance on us as individuals to fight for our own “down times” rather than learning to depend on the larger community to “provide” them. It means saying no to things, slowing down, bypassing “open doors” of opportunity and “more”, and fighting to simplify. It’s easy to live the fasted lifestyle of simple devotion in a little trailer with a few options. This is the season where we as a community get to find out if the lifestyle “took” in the roots of our soul as the options increase.
So if you’ll excuse me, the kids are stirring and my bride is calling. Time to get back to resting.
David
6 comments December 17th, 2007
