This past week I attended a session for clergy for the Clergy Health Innitiative. Duke Divinty School is working on a study to help pastors learn how to manage stress and live a more healthy lifestyle. Some of the statistics on clergy health for pastors in our conference were pretty shocking. One that stands out in my mind is that clergy in our conference are twice as likely as the general population to suffer from depression. There were several other areas like diabetes, asthma and arthritis that were high enough among clergy that there was also a statistical difference in the high levels in these health problems compared also to the general population for people in NC. If you are into scientific studies, these folks have truly done their homework on the book work to make sure that what we do is worth the time. So the bottom line for us this past week boiled down to learning how to do a better job in managing stress. Stress brings with it so many different kinds of sickness that if we can bring down the stress level among our clergy, our scientific data show us that we can increase health in our clergy. All this sounds good. To get started this week, in Ashboro NC at Camp Caraway, we launched the journey. Clergy from the NC and the Western NC Conferences. Very little cell phone service, and no T.V. in my room did a little to raise my stress while I was there. Monday night I went to bed at 7:30pm. No joke. Tuesday night I went to bed by 9:00pm. The schedule had a 30 minute break between activities, so all day long we were not at a rushed pace and it really felt weird to have that much time before I had to do something else.
I tried to honor the spirit of being on retreat when I left home. I left my laptop at home and kept my phone cut off and when we were not in worship or in class, I would check messages. Like many pastors I did have a pastoral emergency while I was at the retreat, the death of one of our oldest members. His funeral service was today. There was a pastor here in Boone on call for me that was able to take care of the family until I could get back at the end of the retreat to be with them. Something good did happen this week as we had Holy Communion together, sang hymns, listened to sermons, prayed for our congregations. Today, even after doing a funeral this afternoon, I feel like some of my peace has been restored. I have had the opportunity to think about holy things and put my trust in God to hold everything together until I could get back to my post. I am not quite able to find the words to describe what it's like to have a burden lifted, but somehow I actually do feel less stressed, more rested, and looking forward to worship tomorrow. God wants to give us what we need each day, if we will slow down long enough to receive the gift of each day. At Camp Caraway, there was a beautiful weeping willow tree that stood above a lake. Not a big deal to most of the folks there probably, but to me, who left snow on the ground in the yard of the parsonage when I left to go on retreat, this tree meant something different to me. The weeping willow was in full bud. Spring is close at hand. New life is right around the corner. To me, it was the image of the retreat that means new life is right around the corner, hold on to that hope. God is sending you a message of hope today as well. Look for your own willow tree, and know that new life is just on the verge of breaking through.
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