My sabbatical is over tomorrow. I’m ready for the questions:

Was it restful?
Are you moving?
What did you learn?

Sort of.
No.
It’s Complicated.

The best part of my sabbatical was that it was a change of rhythm. It wasn’t particularly “restful.” I was flying back and forth to Florida for family time and conferences. (American Airlines flights were delayed every single time. Every. Single. Time. They were five for five. On my last trip home, my bag was lost. It’s still missing. My one Delta flight was perfect). I was writing a book on battling cancer and my friendship with Lisa Faulkner (37,000+ words written). I was dealing with a few health issues of my own. I bought a truck (I like it. Karla hates it.) It’s been busy. Restful? Kind of. Sort of. Maybe. Oh and I started playing Wordle.

Maybe Wordle is the best summary of my sabbatical. In Wordle, the player guesses a five-letter word. Correct letters in your first guess are shown in green. If the letter is in the word but not in the correct position, it’s yellow. Misses are grey. The player then makes another guess and another guess. Six attempts are allowed. Once I’ve been lucky to get the word on the second guess. Never the first. That’s pure luck. So far, it’s never taken me six guesses to get the word.

Why is Wordle like my Sabbatical? Like in Wordle…

1) My Sabbatical has been thought provoking (I’ve read 18 books. Some good. Some not so good). 

2) My Sabbatical has used words (I told you 37,000 words). 

3) My Sabbatical has been fun (seeing my boys and their wives; catching up with friends). 

4) My Sabbatical has been consistent (every morning I play Wordle; write a one or two sentence summary of a story from the previous day; have devotion/scripture reading/prayer time; write in my journal, and write in the book). And,

5) My Sabbatical has been new every morning (Like God Almighty and the Lord’s faithfulness, God has shown to be faithful throughout this time. No earth-shattering messages from on High. No lightning bolts of inspiration. Just a daily faithfulness. Maybe that’s the reminder I needed most. God is faithful and will be faithful whatever challenges the future might hold. 

Tomorrow my sabbatical ends and I will be in ministerial credentials meetings for most of the day. Nothing says, “Welcome back to the real world of ministry,” like hearing a bunch of newbies explaining the Articles of Faith.

Moving into the home stretch of ministry, like my sabbatical and like Wordle, I hope to be consistent, thought provoking, use words, have fun and most importantly daily trust in the faithfulness of God Almighty. Wouldn’t it be ironic if tomorrow’s Wordle word is TRUST.