“So. What does a Rector do all week anyway?”
This is the nicest form of the question that I get on a fairly regular basis. Most of the time it’s asked with genuine curiosity. Other times, there’s a little bit of snark. Particularly around vacation time. “Why do you need a vacation? You only work on the weekends!” … followed by a little laugh to show me that it is just a joke.
But I get it – I really do. Because so much of this work is invisible, and prosaic, and even tedious. There’s lots of paperwork, and lots of meetings. There are funerals and other services to conduct, services to plan, phone calls, and appointments to make and to keep. Times of teaching and times of learning. Tears to dry and laughter to share. Newsletters to write, sermons to prepare, studying to do. And the knowledge that at any moment of any day or any night, the phone will ring and I will need to drop everything and care for someone in a crisis.
Maybe that’s why I keep jelly beans in my office – the kind where each color is a different flavor. I can’t just throw a few in my mouth unless I’ve sorted them first; otherwise, the combo could be quite unpleasant. Or if I don’t sort them, I can eat them one at a time and enjoy each unique sensation. There’s a lot of variety, and I’m never bored with them. Pink can be bubble gum, or cotton candy. Brown and black look a lot alike, so it might be licorice, or chocolate pudding, or Dr. Pepper. Red? Maybe cherry. Maybe red hot cinnamon.
So what does a Rector do all week? Well, for me it can be summed up by post-it notes and jelly beans. One to keep me focused on tasks that need to be done, and one that can remind me of life’s sweet surprised – and occasional shocks. And all wrapped up in a mantle of prayer that makes all of it possible. So if you have a lot of to-do lists, make sure to add a jelly bean or two just to make it that much sweeter. Can’t hurt, might help.