Big Stuff In a Little Space

When the day arrives for my family to leave on a trip a very large pile of stuff appears near the door closest to our vehicle. I come home bringing with me the same question, “Is all this stuff going fit into the car?” After I am assured it will all fit “Just fine” I say, as though it is a script Nature itself has imprinted into me, “Do we really need all this stuff!” (That was a rhetorical question.) Sure enough, it would all fit, and sure enough, as it turns out, we didn’t need “it all” at all.

I had to research and present four major projects to bring this week to an end. I prepared our Wednesday Night study on CS Lewis’ book The Problem of Pain; and a presentation on the Doctrine of the Holy Spirit for our men's prayer breakfast; and another presentation to my Presbytery on the proposed New Form of Government. In addition, I am just now (or should be) finishing up my sermon preparation for tomorrow. 

Did it all fit into the available space or, rather, time? It did. These opportunities to serve cost me many hours of reading, writing and thinking. In my little noggin I had Lewis’ four page arguments stuck in some corner with its edges refusing to stay put. I kept thinking about Tertullian and his Montanists, who called themselves The Pnuematics. They had a very screwy notions concerning God the Holy Spirit. (I have always thought “The Pnuematics” would make a great name for the nineteen fifty’s doo-wop group - but I digress.)

Beyond Lewis’ pristine logic and these esoteric ramblings of arcane theology, there was the realpolik of the Form of Government (kind of like a book long set of bylaws for an organization). I read Calvin’s Ecclesiastical Ordinances and John Knox’s version of it also; I studied the a Church governmental structure a produced by the Westminster Assembly and used in Scotland and the American Colonies. I also considered the Presbyterian Form of Government that was in place in 1824. The Book of Church Order for the old Southern Presbyterian Church. Of course, I studied the proposed revision diligently, comparing it to our current Book of Order.

Today, with the presentation on the Holy Spirit in the early morning and the presentation of New Form of Government later that same morning, I realized that I had jammed too much into far too little a space. I ended up speaking for about fifteen minutes. All that work for fifteen minutes! Was it worth the time and effort? Sure it was, this is why I am who I claim to be.

Did I need all the stuff I put into it? Probably not! It must be some form of idolatry that prompts me to grossly overestimate my capacity to juggle that many ideas at one time. At the moment it is like pounding your head with a hammer, after you stop it feels so much better.