Today I had a wonderful experience. It was the experience of worshipping at Christ Church with virtually no pastoral duties. In God’s Providence, and thanks to Pastor Carroll’s hard work, I did not have to preach this week. We also do not have an evening service – so no evening sermon. I did not have to teach at all, in fact. (This is a sharp change from next week, when I’ll preach twice and teach my new Sunday school class – which will have its own kind of different pleasure and benefits for me!) I was able for the most part to simply relax with my family both before and during the service. I did not have to focus at all on the sermon that needed to be finished towards the end of this week. On my favorite of all holidays - Thanksgiving – I rested and played with the kids and enjoyed company. The next day, I did not even feel the need to fight traffic and the hordes of shoppers on “Black Friday.” (And if you know of my love for all things electronic, you know what a sacrifice that was for me!) Two days of complete rest from all duties and cares!! To top it all off, we had the Lord’s Supper this morning. What a wonderful week.

But there is another good thing that I was reminded of this week. It is that Christ Church is much more than the place where I work, or the place where I am allowed to minister. Christ Church is the Grecos’ church family. It is the place that we long to be. You may have noticed that on our last week of vacation (in September) that we showed up for church at Taylor High School. I thought about visiting another church to see what was going on around town (there are few opportunities for a minister to do that), but the kids wouldn’t hear of missing their Sunday school classes, or their friends, or the opportunity to hear Pastor Carroll preach. Deb and I couldn’t think of a good reason to be away from the where we wanted to be. Even though it might seem “unusual” or a “waste of a vacation opportunity,” we wanted to be with Christ Church. In fact, I can say with all honesty that if I were not a pastor but still a lawyer who lived in Houston that we would attend Christ Church because of the people and the commitment to ministry. There is no other place where I would rather be. All this was brought to my mind when I read an internet article from 9 Marks Ministries entitled, “You shouldn’t work at a church you wouldn’t attend.” Praise be to God that is in no way the case for me. I am incredible blessed.