You will say in that day: I will give thanks to you, O Lord, for though you were angry with me, your anger turned away, and you comforted me. Surely God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid, for the Lord God is my strength and my might; he has become my salvation. With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.

And you will say in that day: Give thanks to the Lord, call on his name; make known his deeds among the nations; proclaim that his name is exalted. Sing praises to the Lord, for he has done gloriously; let this be known in all the earth. Shout aloud and sing for joy, O royal Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.

Yesterday I had one of those days.  You have had them too this season I bet.  I felt as though I was constantly trying to catch up and still not catching up with all of the work I should be doing.  Plus then because the list kept growing I really felt as if I wasn’t doing all of my tasks as well as they should have been done.  And just when I was on the brink of feeling as though I wasn’t doing enough yesterday, I went to our new Wednesday night worship service and attendance was a bit down….not in an alarming way during the season but just enough to make me start to take it on myself. I started thinking “what am I doing wrong?” “What am I not doing enough of?” “I should be advertising more, calling people more, doing more…”  You get the idea, you have been there….

At about 10pm when I was still working on my computer, my little dog Rudy would NOT leave me alone. He kept nudging my hands and positioning himself so I would pet him.  Or he would bring me a toy and position it just so so my hand would brush it and I would throw it.  This happened over and over again…I was starting to get a bit irritated until I realized.  I am still working.  This all won’t be fixed tonight.  The dog has it right. It is time to rest and to be with the dog…not the computer.  It had to be enough for last night.

I don’t know about you, but this is a common scene during this season.  It starts to feel a bit overwhelming and as if I am just not doing enough.  There are too many tasks on the list.  There are many more things than I can physically accomplished in one day’s worth of hours.  There are many more pressures on each of us that we start to lose track of the importance of the things we do.  Mark calls this the swiss cheese affect.  When we should be refocusing on the cheese, the good stuff, we sometimes let the holes overwhelm us.

And here is the reality…some amazing things happened yesterday and I got to be there.  I visited a woman on hospice and it was a good visit. It was meaningful and I wouldn’t change it for anything.  Worship was fab with amazing conversation, good food, and the people who came were committed to a worshipful experience.  And next week will be another grand experience and while we have things to improve, this worship piece on Wednesday night is one of my favorite things in the world right now.  And after I put down the computer, I got to cuddle with cute little animals and let my mind and body rest.  In between, I did other productive things that had to be enough for yesterday and today is a brand new day for which I give thanks.  When the prophets tell us to give thanks, it is in this spirit.  We are focusing on the cheese and not getting overwhelmed by the holes.  We are a swiss cheese people…there is always stuff to be done and in community we can give thanks for the things we have seen in God’s goodness…for that grace that allows us to be human with one another and for a new day tomorrow.

But if you are having a not enough day…I say, dwell in it for a bit and then get up today with a new day….prayers for you in that space if you pray for me in that not enough space…