"Things are more like today than they have ever been before." - Gerald R. Ford

It's 5:15 and I've been up for a bit over two hours. Today is going to get interesting, in part because of a pretty early start. And this post will be written throughout the day so expect a particularly high level of disconnectedness.

I haven't mentioned it heretofore because I thought it was a blip on the screen but I've got some serious pain in my left butt cheek. I woke up with it the first morning we were in Phoenix, pushed myself through a run anyway, and figured like most pain at this age it was transient and would disappear as the day progressed. Here we are five days later and it's only gotten worse.

From what I've read online I think it's sciatica. Sunday night we were at Josh and Aubri's to celebrate Caedon's birthday and Josh showed me some stretches that would help alleviate the pain, including one called the "pigeon stretch." FYI, if you ever want to try out the kind of thing that was done to prisoners in medieval dungeons look up a You Tube video of the pigeon stretch and give it a try.
Not gonna happen with this old body!
But I've got to do something to alleviate the pain. It keeps me awake at night, makes sitting especially painful, and is going to seriously get in the way of the projects I have to complete before Pam gets home. Ibuprofen - three tablets - doesn't touch it.
I did some surfing this morning and found a couple of other stretches that may help; I'll give them a try and keep attempting the contortions that are the pigeon stretch.
Oh, and I read on several sites that sciatic nerve problems typically resolve within four to six weeks. That makes me feel so much better about this!

I also read this morning that we went 84 days without measurable precip before the two tenths of an inch of rain that fell here before I got home yesterday. Eugene is now 9.5" below the average for the year to date. We're supposed to get a few tenths this afternoon and tomorrow but no heavy rain is in the forecast. We need it.

It turns out that a look at the record of the referee of the Serena Williams match shows he has a history of handing out warnings and point deductions for that kind of behavior, and at a rate higher for male players than for female players.

Steve & Michelle and Josh & Aubri both have Siri/Alexa devices. They're pretty cool. It may be a good thing we don't have decent internet or I'd likely spend more time talking to Alexa than Pam. At S&M's they use it to - among other things - control lights and get the joke of the day (a dad joke, but that's OK). While at J&A's I asked Alexa for and was given the weather in Eugene.
I wonder if Siri can do the pigeon stretch.

In the last couple of months I've had several interactions with and about struggling churches. Congregations go through difficult times for a wide variety of reasons but these cases have all had one thing in common - pastors who aren't cutting it.
Do you know these three words?

• Malfeasance - doing bad stuff on the job.
• Misfeasance - screwing up, but doing it unintentionally.
• Nonfeasance - just not doing the work. Being a slacker.

All three make me especially angry when it occurs in a pastor. 

In one church I pastored I followed a guy who was caught having an affair with the church secretary. 

He became pastor after his predecessor badly managed a building project that put the church in enormous, crippling debt. He was a great guy who should never have tried to run a building program.

The list of guys who are lazy and using the pastorate as an easy paycheck is way too long. Their people rarely see their nonfeasance for what it is because there's no time card and no one to see how little they do. Sunday morning is often the only time they observe their pastor at work so they assume he's busy throughout the week when too frequently he's doing piddling tasks and little else. 

Grrrrrrr!

Note: Not all situations where a pastor isn't working out are because of one of those three problems. Sometimes the pastor/congregation pairing was perfect but circumstances changed and as a result the pairing needs to change. In fact, a case could be made that the need for a change may show the pastor did a good job at leading the congregation to the next phase of development, a phase he's not best suited to lead. 

James (3:1) warned that those who are teachers in the church will be judged with greater strictness and Christ told the Pharisees they'd be in big trouble at the final judgment because of their malfeasance. Why? Because the pastor is an under-shepherd who works for the Great Shepherd who loves and laid down his life for his sheep. Don't think he's going to ignore any kind of screwup when it comes to his sheep! 

Yeah, it makes me angry when the profession to which I gave 42 years is treated casually and carelessly by guys who should know better. I'm told that's the same in all professions - that good plumbers get angry at the plumbers who give their profession a bad name. But in ministry the stakes are so high.

I realize all this probably sounds arrogant, judgmental, and presumptuous on my part. But I've recently seen or heard reports of churches that are either dead or near death and the primary cause seems to be a pastor who is either in over his head or just mailing it in. This is the kingdom of God stuff here. It doesn't get any bigger than this. My grandmother used the expression "box his ears" to describe administering a sound thrashing to a kid who has it coming. (It happened to be me at the time.) OK, it's not my job to do so I'll let it go. But boy, it makes me angry. 

I didn't expect to go on that rant. It's now 6:30 and while I was spouting off I made the coffee, drank two cups of it, and finished my breakfast of eggs and BACON. It's time to shower, do morning chores, and then get to work on the to-do list.

I may be back before the day's over. It depends on that black hole that is my brain and what it works on as I'm doing tasks. 

Hope you have (or have had) a good day!