This is a bizarre thing to say, but I’ve spent the last few weeks looking forward to December and life slowing down. Seriously. The craziest time of year for Americans and I’m excited about the slower pace!

Over the last two months I’ve had major trips/events every other weekend. The Fall Retreat, One Incredible Night, Urban Outreach, the NYWC conference. In between those biweekly doses of exhaustion there has also been The Three, the Masquerade Ball, a student led Student Quest, a band night (okay, I wasn’t around for that one), meetings, our weekly small groups and Sunday morning Student Quest … you get the idea. It’s been a marathon.

I think what pushed it over the edge was the Fall Retreat; it was rescheduled because of the hurricane in August, and my mistake was in not cancelling some of the other events to help find some balance in the schedule.

The funniest thing to me is, December isn’t going to be a slow month either. Student Ministry has five different Christmas party/events over the next few weeks, as well as Brief Relief at the end of the month. In addition to all of the other church wide events. Sheesh.

It all definitely has me rethinking some of the calendar stuff for next school year. My sense is that I’m not the only one fried, which isn’t good. It’s also made it challenging for leaders to connect with all of the stuff going on – it’s all good stuff, but if it’s not balanced it becomes detrimental!