Refreshment 8.6.2026

    Last week was busy with camp and other pastoral and professional issues, so it is good to be back to a more normal routine. Mrs. Beckman and I are pretty much homebodies. For me that means coming down from the Parsonage on the Hill to spend time in my study which is my home away from home. The times and places flow according to my normal routines, but the work is not coming quite as easily this week. 

    As you might guess there was a lot of catching up to do. And I still seem to be having some difficulty   fighting off long-term fatigue. While I may not be flailing per se, I’m also taking a bit longer to get my “chores” done. I don’t like to get off schedule, but I am getting a bit bogged down this week by issues which should not be so tiresome. Some of you might think “It’s because you’re getting old!” Which may be true. A part of it also comes down to a no time for the kind of work I find refreshing.

    Refreshing work consists of things that you not only enjoy but that you also find invigorating They get the blood flowing. They get you engaged. They connect different parts of your brain and help to create intellectual and spiritual alignment.  

     With your permission of course, let me share a couple of things with you that I find refreshing during times like these. To help recalibrate the gray matter for the more important work. 

 Read

    How helpful can it be, how relaxing and refreshing to read—when your job revolves around reading and writing? Very helpful indeed if you find something different to absorb your attention for a brief time. I have collected a nice little stash of novels to read which I expect to help restore my edge. 

    Novels? Why? How? To what end? Yes. Because they combine entertainment and engagement. To what end? Getting the ol’ motor running. I’ve still got work percolating along, but when the mental engine backfires it is time to provide different fuel. 

    I am pretty promiscuous when it comes to reading. I like history, biography, novels, historical fiction. This is not a good time to be too picky—though I do have a particular author and focus for the rest of the summer. Most of this material will yield no notes—no pithy quotations, no memorable anecdotes. Reading is better than most movies and it keeps the blood flowing in the brain. I also like cinema. However, when you’re tired movies can provide too great an opportunity to simply fall asleep. 

Think

    “Don’t you think when you study? When you prepare? As you preach?” Yes. Yes. And Yes. Not all thinking is created equal. When fatigued you need to relax the intellectual muscles without relying on the sugary sweets of TV and social media. Mrs. Beckman and I do have certain shows we like to watch, and I like entertaining movies, but sometimes you just need to think. Maybe doodle a little, nothing too complicated. Maybe a brief, squiggly outline something simple while using your brain to do the thing it was created for—thinking. 

    As ministers we are generally either dipping the bucket into the well or filling the well. We pour things in; we draw things out. In, out. In, out. Every week. The study provides material for our life’s work. The sermon or lesson the is the weekly embodiment of that work. We have both input and output. What about the process that moves us from the study to the pulpit? It’s not automatic. It should be thoughtful, intentional, directed, and purposeful. Yet much of the time we are so deadline driven that we have no time for the creative intellectual play that is essential for continued growth. Don’t get me wrong. We need to be ready for Sunday’s sermon or Thursday’s article. However, at some point the well we have filled to overflowing will begin to get cloudy and stagnant because we are filling and drawing but never stirring. Thinking is stirring the water’s so that they don’t grow murky or cloudy. 

And with that…I’m off to clear the water with a novel. Cheers.