Fresh Sheet of Paper on the Platen of life. 1.1.2026

     You youngsters might not know what a “platen” is. Those of us who learned our typing skills on actual typewriters learned about the platen early on. The platen is the technical name for the roller or other surface upon which the paper rests so that whatever form of keys your particular typewriter has can strike the paper and leave the impression of a letter. This analogy is simple, basic, and helpful. I’ll try and not mess it up. 

    Your life—all your skills, abilities, avocations, interests, gifts, and desire--is the platen. You are writing the essay of your life in faithful obedience (or rebellion) to Jesus. Each new year (every day really, but we’re focusing on the yearly picture) you get to roll a fresh new piece of paper onto the platen, plop down the guide, set your margins, crack your knuckles and get to work. 

    While the end of year hustle and bustle of the Thanksgiving-Christmas-New Years matrix leaves many of us worn out and worn down, there is not really time to waste. The new year is coming and before you know it, we will be substituting the walk to the manger for the walk of discipleship, following Jesus to the cross. It is tempting to spend a couple of weeks kind of coasting—many of us will be encountering bad weather—and just wait until late January or even early February to really get in the groove. You’ve only got 52 weeks. Why waste any of them? Surely there is something you can do to prepare for the coming work in the dawning new year!

Sloth

    My desk is a mess. Before the end of this week, I will straighten it out and make the unsightly unseen. Some of the items on my desktop will prove unnecessary and will be dealt with accordingly. It seems inevitable during busy weeks to allow the crud to accumulate. I don’t like it any better than Denise S. (Our custodian), but when long days begin and end in the dark keeping those files organized is more of a chore than it should be. So, some of this stuff will be stowed. Papers will be reviewed, filed, or flung out. 

    Sloth may be an unfair or even pejorative term for what has led to this low estate.  Inertia works. The Second law of Thermodynamics seems a bit much for explaining extra paperwork on my desk. Yet, the reality is that a year’s worth of preaching, teaching, pastoral care, administrative planning, and other ministry duties comprise a lot of work. Ministry is diverse. There are many kinds of tasks. Amid the typical work week there are things set aside that need to be taken back up and sometimes this requires more time than we have at our disposal. Maybe we need to take an hour or so before 1.1.2026 and use the process to clear our minds as well as our desks?   

Systems

    We also need to make sure that our work-product systems and procedures are prepared for the coming year. A new year means new work. New sermon calendar, new Sunday School lessons. New opportunities. 

    Here’s a scenario—you come up with a great idea for a new Sunday School series, type up a preliminary outline, go to save it…and you don’t have any place prepared for filing that new work. And this first, preliminary outline is just a start. You’ll need to do some preliminary Bible study. You will need to determine how long the series of lessons should go and whether it should dovetail with other teaching that is on deck for the foreseeable future. And then, after you’ve made some directional progress, you will need to prepare for the deeper exegesis and study that will go into producing actual lessons. All that work, notes, schedules, comparative tables, exegesis and composition will need to be properly filed. 

    You will have a big document for preparing first drafts of each lesson—set up to compare how each week’s material builds upon the next weeks and facilitating a bird’s eye view of the whole. You will also accumulate illustrative documents, visuals, and other supplementary materials that should be kept together for the series as a whole. 

    How about this week we take some time to do some system’s tweaking and checking to make sure that we have our computers, files, and other tools ready to accomplish our work. Yes, it is busy work. But as much as we might complain about—it is still work. Work that needs to be done. Failing to put those systems in place now means interrupting your chain of thought when you are doing the more important tasks of exegeting and interpreting scripture or doing the actual writing. These systemic tasks seems irrelevant when time is tight, but the outcome is worse in a couple of months when a quick transition gets bogged down because you need to get into the Finder (I’m a Mac Guy) or you need to label sets of Manilla folders (for you analog folks) just to prepare a new series of Youth Group lessons or a new Sunday School series. It only seems mundane. These activities actually save time. 

Summary

    This is platen work. You won’t be getting necessary tasks “done”. You are, however, making sure that you are ready to roll January 2, 2026.Your tools will be ready. Your work area will be waiting. Your body will be (hopefully) rested. You’ll be ready to look the new year in the eye, roll a new sheet into the machine and get to work.