When Is Enough Enough?

How do you decide when you are doing too much?  That is the question that has been on my mind this week.  I had six meetings and a preaching workshop this week.  Of course, there was the regular Masses and homily work too.  From Monday evening till Friday morning I was having a tough time getting other things done.  So, I began to wonder did this mean I have taken on too much work. 

When I get busy, I sometimes go into what I will call “work-mode” instead of “ministry-mode.”  When we get busy sometimes we lose sight of what our goal ultimately is.  For me, the goal is to serve the people of God according to God’s Will.  That’s “ministry-mode.”  “Work-mode” is when it becomes about getting things done (completely a checklist).

Meetings can be a lot of reporting or trying to come up with the resources to do ministry.  Some of the meetings this week were like that for me.  But there were moments of “enthusiasm” for me too.  One example of this for me was a meeting at one of our churches this week.  The first half of the meeting was a lot of reporting in about things going on with the parish at large (remember we are a group of six churches).  During the second half of the meeting we talked about how we might reach out to Catholics who haven’t been to church in a while and to people who have never been to church.

My enthusiasm came forth at that point because this is an important ministry to me (since I didn’t go to church for a number of years myself).

Do I have too much work to done?  I am still not sure.  It isn’t a decision you make based on one week.  Regardless, in the busy times (and the slow times) we must always keep the focus on God!

How do you know how much you are supposed to be doing?

Peace,

Fr. Jeff