One day

One of the things I am fascinated by in ministry is the variety of work we can be doing. Today I am off to the Mother and Toddlers group this morning, conducting a wedding at lunchtime and visiting this afternoon.
All of these are things I love.

When I was talking to a more experienced minister this week about the "good" things in ministry and said I was conducting a wedding, she looked at me strangely and said that weddings were not her favourite things but if I was happy doing it that was great. It made me realise how fortunate I have been. This is only my second wedding and both of the brides have been mums from the Mothers and Toddlers group. This means that I have not been meeting strangers and going through the motions, but really seeing the excitement building and the plans coming together.

I am also friends with this bride on Facebook so I have seen her excited countdown to today and I know how she is feeling.

As strange as it sounds, I think weddings are often perfunctory (is that the right word??) for ministers as we don't get to know the people involved - merely meet them a couple of times.

This is also true of funerals. We meet the family, often, only once before the funeral and sometimes only once after it. But the meetings are in such intense circumstances that there is often some form of a bond formed - albeit often a temporary one. I also feel that in the sad times I am sometimes able to bring some comfort - and if nothing else guide them on what will happen on the day of the funeral. Practical advice is often what they need as much as spiritual care.

One of the visits this afternoon may be to a family whose son died in as yet unexplained circumstances. And the contrast of going from a wedding celebration to a grieving family is one of the challenges and privileges of ministry. And going to play with babies and visit some of the wonderfully inspiring people in my congregation will be interspersed to help me make these transitions. More than once I have left a house after a visit that was meant to be to comfort or cheer up a parishioner, and have found that I have been the one uplifted by the visit.

So today will be another day of contrasts and the unexpected in among the planned - if the unexpected doesn't overtake the planned! - and that, for this control freak, is much less scary than I thought it would be.

OK, God, bring on today!