this is no longer my blog

During the season of Lent, our church participates in a rotation with four other Lutheran churches in the area. So each Wednesday evening, a different pastor preaches at each church. We've agreed on preaching on the Letters to the Seven Churches in the book of Revelation. So, while preaching on Revelation doesn't sound fun, if you think about it, the whole rotation thing means I only have to write one sermon all of Lent. Right?
Ideally? Yes. Truthfully? No.
You see, we have a large enough population of older, retired folks who aren't too keen on driving at night, and so if they can go to an 11:00am Lenten worship service, then they will. So we offer them one. The only thing is, the area pastors do not come to our church and preach at the 11:00am one. That means it is up to Supervising pastor or I to preach. So we've decided that since in the rotation we count as one person (so we alternated preaching on Wednesdays) that whoever doesn't preach that Wednesday evening at an area church will then preach that morning at our home church. So we have to preach on the letter to whatever church that the visiting pastor will be preaching that evening.
Now, all of that said, Supervising is the travelling pastor tomorrow evening. So I have to preach on the Letter to the Church at Sardis tomorrow. Which really won't be that tough. Jesus is telling the church to wake up, they're falling asleep and going through the motions, and on the edge of death. But if they conquer, then they will be robed in white and will not be blotted out of the Book of Life. So, really, not hard stuff to preach on. But I like to procrastinate.
I have it to a fine art. I can find ANYTHING to do instead of what I should be doing.
Take today, for instance, in the office in the afternoon. I knew I should be working on the sermon, but our new denominational magazine came today with many responses from leaders in the church about the Task Force on Sexuality's Report and Recommendations. Maybe I should read that.
Or, maybe I should post the 10(or 11) things that I've done that other people may not have done.
Or, MUST. PLAY. COMPUTER. GAMES. CANNOT. RESIST.
Or, that plant looks sickly. Maybe I should water it. Maybe I should pull off all the dead leaves. Maybe I should clean out that coffee cup. Maybe I should water my other plants while I have the watering can.
Or, I can chat with my friends for a while. It's okay. I don't get to chat with them that often.
Or, it's okay if I watch American Idol. It's only an hour long. Then I can get to work.
Or, it's okay if I blog about procrastination. If I blog about it, then it really doesn't count. Does it?
You get the picture. Although I have about two pages done. Okay, one and a half.
And there is this little voice in the back of my head saying, "If you think about it, you don't have to preach your sermon until 11:00 tomorrow. Really, you could goof around the rest of this evening, go to bed, and then get up and finish it in the morning. Honestly, you could really do that."
So, really it's a test of my character to keep this beast called Procrastination in check. Normally, I'm pretty good at it and I always get things done on time (even if in a mad rush right at the end). I have yet to be late with anything, or not have anything done, since I began this thing called internship. And I'd like to keep that track record going. So maybe I'll stop this thing called procrastination and get back to work.