Saturday afternoon I ironed and laid out all four sets of our clothes for the next day. I prepared everything I could ahead of time so that there would be no hiccups on Easter Sunday morning. We all got to bed early and were up and at 'em early the next morning (Andy- 4:30 AM, me- 5:30 AM, boys- 6:30 AM).
Things were going really smoothly that morning until it was time for me to get the boys dressed. It was one of the last things I needed to do before walking out the door. I got Caedmon dressed head to toe. Check! I got Sammy dressed...but wait, where's his other shoe? I knew I just had it because it was a new pair of shoes that were tied together that morning. I had just cut them apart. I looked EVERY WHERE for that shoe, and of course never found it. That was a double whammy for me because 1- I had gotten him the most adorable outfit with matching shoes for his first Easter and now he had to wear shoes that didn't match, and 2- the search put me ten minutes behind schedule.
I kept telling myself over and over, "It's no big deal. Easter is not about shoes. There are much more important things to think about today. And he still looks adorable." But, alas, I was disappointed and now stressed.
As we walked outside, there was a small bag of trash that needed to be thrown out. Sammy LOVES that job for some reason and picked it up as I locked the front door. Sudden screaming made me jerk around to see Caedmon snatch the bag out of Sammy's hands. "Caedmon, give the bag back to Sammy. Caedmon! CAEDMON!" He ran and threw it in the trash himself. Now Sammy's screaming and I have to discipline Caedmon on the way to church, for which we are already a few minutes behind schedule.
We almost made it to the car when Sammy attempted to jump down from one step to the next. Unfortunately, his head was under the hand rail. He nailed his head which was followed by more tears and a goose egg.
Andy had called on my way out the door and asked me to bring him something so I practically threw my kids at the BayKids workers (oh, how I love our BayKids team!) and scurried over to the service 15 minutes until "kickoff".
Andy & I were scheduled to do the welcome together in the first three services. I was excited to be included in the service. The problem was that we never had a chance to talk through what we were going to say. There's no such thing as "winging it" on Easter Sunday. The production team had gone over and over every single detail of the service and Andy was, of course, part of those run throughs. Andy & I had just failed to communicate thoroughly and so I didn't find out what I was doing until I was standing on the front row as the service began! The whole worship set for that first service I was planning out in my head what I was going to say!
As Andy was preaching his heart out (wasn't his sermon amazing?!), I began feeling sick, literally. My body was achy, my head was swimmy, and the pressure in my sinuses was giving me a headache. I thought to myself, "Seriously? I'm going to get sick now?" I popped a couple Advil and tried to forget about it.
The services were absolutely amazing and I was blessed by every one of them that I attended.
When I went to pick my boys up from BayKids, I thought I'd try to get a couple snapshots of them in their new spring outfits. Well, that was not going to happen unless I was willing to go toe-to-toe with some rather grumpy and uncooperative kiddos. So, much to my dismay, I do not have a single family photo for Easter this year. Sniff, sniff.
Without going into all the details, we had another "incident" on the way home which required additional discipline upon arrival at home. Discipline on the way to church; discipline when we get home from church. Really helps one maintain that heart of worship that we're all going for!
All day long I kept telling myself, "Don't worry about that. Don't let it get you down or off focus. Jesus is ALIVE! Think about that!" I kept singing in my head that old song, "I get knocked down, but I get up again. You're never gonna keep me down!"
I was so emotionally frazzled by the end of the day on Sunday. I think part of the reason the "burden" felt so heavy was because I was trying to protect Andy from it. On Saturday nights and Sundays, I try diligently not to bring any problems to Andy's attention. I try to create a hedge of protection around him so that he can totally focus on bringing the Word. So knowing that he was unavailable made the problems seem all the greater.
Andy (and our staff and several hundred volunteers) absolutely gave it their all this weekend. Andy attended both Easter egg hunts on Saturday, worked on his sermon, and then went by to encourage the volunteers who were setting things up for Sunday. He was up at 4:30 AM on Sunday morning and did not get home from church until 4:30 PM. There were so many people who put in so many hours to make Easter weekend all that it was. I certainly realize that our family is not the only ones who worked hard or sacrificed. But I think it's easy to forget (if you're more on the receiving end than the serving end) that there is sacrifice involved in every great movement of the Gospel. It's not easy. It doesn't just happen. There are spiritual attacks and emotional drains that take their toll. But, is it worth it? Absolutely. And even more than that, it is a privilege to get to be apart of.
Recovery from Easter took about two days around here. A friend stopped by our apartment on Monday and I said, "This is what the pastor's house looks like the day after Easter!" A huge mound of dirty clothes by the washer, a house in desperate need of a good scrub, and 4 individuals in need of some catch-up sleep and emotional refueling. We are finding our rhythm again now and we're still rejoicing over all that God did.
To all of you who served your hearts out this Easter (at South Bay or another church) THANK YOU for the sacrifices you made on behalf of the Kingdom of God. We don't serve a church or a particular leader; we serve Jesus. And any sacrifice that we make personally pales in comparison to the sacrifice He made for us. He is worth everything we have to offer Him!
1 comment:
Stacie,
You are such a faithful servant of Our King and His call in your life. I know you did't write the post to illicit that response, but that's my response. Thank you for taking the time to share the behind the scenes. I have much to learn from you!
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