The House Guest

I said to my husband, "It is as though there has been another person in the house. A demanding house guest who has worn out her welcome!"

For the past three months I've been preoccupied with work for a church committee. Our pastor of 31 years left our congregation in January of 2007 after having given two or three months notice. An interim pastor came a month after he left; she was to stay approximately a year to help us establish a call committee to find another pastor. Time has passed and people have become impatient. Finally we took the step of establishing an Interim Committee. This committee's charge was to study the congregation and prepare a report on the state of the congregation; the report was to be given to the call committee to guide them in their work and also to be available to prospective new pastors for our church. I was asked to serve on the interim committee and as we began our work I agreed to serve as co-chair.

It has been a lot of work. More work than I had anticipated.

Because of the work for the committee, I've neglected my email, my relationships, my housekeeping. My 500th blog post went by unacknowledged as did my second year blogiversary.

But now it is finished. The report, which we will present to the church council tomorrow night, is 39 pages long and we have come up with seven recommendations. I am relieved.

And I can air out the guest room!