The Things That Keep Me Up At Night

The things that are keeping me awake:

trying to make sure that I don’t offend anyone or inadvertently hurt anyone‘s feelings; being extraneous; the people who don’t come to church when they’d been coming regularly, I start to think I did something that hurt them; feeling like I need to make church “fun” in order to get people to attend; making sure all the details in the bulletin are right, not leaving out any announcements or anyone’s name; wine at the Founder’s Day service, how to gracefully invite people to communion when many of the people in attendance can only partake of the bread; forgetting details; calling people who haven’t been at church in awhile, people being annoyed at being called and people being annoyed at not being called (you can rarely win with this one); not adequately communicating events; the church failing to grow; my presence not being the panacea needed to attract younger families and individuals; people's expectations; my expectations; the dog throwing up; too many blankets; and last, but not least, trying to be all things to all people. Oh, let me add to the list, my own awareness that none of this is really about me...

Hmm, pressure much? Well, perhaps I should merely think about entering Rollin's and Paraclete's parable competition (on the link look for the May 31st entry). What would the extended metaphor be for a loving and non-anxious God in the midst of late night anxiety?