THE WEEKEND TAKES ITS TOLL—EVEN IN RETIREMENT

Monday, August 14, 2006

“Monday morning blues,” lack of energy, near exhaustion—no desire to mount up and ride. Why? You say, “It’s natural. Weekends are hard on us. We pack so much into them. We wear ourselves out. We have another long work week facing us. It’s natural! "

IN RETIREMENT?????

You see, my problem is: when I was working, I looked forward to Monday morning. I had a lot of enthusiasm. I wanted to get back to the office and look over the visitors cards and make plans for contacting them. I wanted to get the week off to a fast start. Oh, I know that most ministers take Monday off because they are exhausted after Sunday. I was always exhausted, too, but I was energized by the prospects of what the new week held for me. I didn’t want to put things off until Tuesday. I took Friday off after my messages were planned and the week’s tasks had been completed.

Now, in retirement I have no messages to plan, no visitation program to run, no fights to referee, no office to administrate. I plan a few sermons but Charlotte doesn’t want to hear them. I could go visit somebody but nobody really wants to see me. I try to boss Charlotte but she doesn’t pay any attention.

My total responsibility this week is ME.

Man, I am already exhausted!