Feeling Overwhelmed ...

Things are still wild for me. Somehow I forget each year that the Christmas holidays merge with work deadlines and travel to create the perfect storm of busyness. I am back in my hometown this week, enjoying the bliss of doing nothing or next to nothing with my family. My dad has the week off and that makes it even better. I'm observing my strict, self-imposed rule that when I am here, I act like I am here by disconnecting from the online world and my cell phone. These visits are precious and rare and all the other stuff will still be there when I fly home. Speaking of which ...

When I get back home next week, a flurry of work will be waiting. But by the second week of January, I ought to be back to a slightly saner pace and more regular blogging.

Here's one item of note:

The movie Amazing Grace is now available on DVD. Go rent it, or better yet—buy it, and enjoy the movie that opened my eyes to the modern issue of slavery.

Mostly Back to Normal ...

This is my first attempt to act like I am back on semi-regular basis. Had a work trip, which went very well, but then I was swamped with work more or less straight from Tuesday morning to Thursday night. Fortunately, some time to recover was offered in return, and I am working on that recovery presently. The wind is returning to my sails, thanks to some rest and encouragement. Being back at church after 3 Sundays away also helped.

Now that I am starting to feel like I live in this time zone, I'll try to appear here more often. We have a meeting of the Clapham Carolina Circle this week, and I hope that we'll hear good reports as some of our members have been able to get some ideas up and running. Perhaps we can put our heads together for a few more. ... And, of course, we'll pray that God will free slaves and use us to do it.

How Do You Keep Going?

This post doesn't really mean that I'm back. It means I am in the country again, but I have writer's block and am struggling to write what my publication needs right now. Not posting for so long has made me a little uncomfortable, too, as if I might begin to let this issue slip off the radar.

I've been wrestling with this thought: How do you keep going? When you're involved in a cause, how do you keep fighting for it passionately when the initial outrage wears off? When you're in the thick of things at home, at work, at church? How do you stay engaged?

Think about the amazing work that the Clapham Society accomplished. How did people like William Wilberforce keep it up year after year? Certainly they were all busy in politics, in church work, in their families and professions. Yet they fought seemingly unflaggingly for decades to see slavery abolished. When you read books such as Amazing Grace, you could get the impression that it was all abolition, all the time. But no one lives like that. What did they do to maintain that passion during the lulls of life?

So here's a question for the 10 readers out there: How do you keep the important things in your life from getting buried under deadlines from work, events at church and maintaining some sort of personal life? What brings you back to the most important things? And for those in the Carolina Clapham Circle, what can we do in our group to keep the fire burning when there's little action to take or we're pulled away by life's other demands?

Talk amongst yourselves. It could be a few days before I resurface again ...

Still here ...

No, I haven't disappeared. Just went home to spend time with my family for the week. TimeWarner Cable was having some issues in their area, so I wasn't able to get online much.

Welcome to any newcomers! There will be some new material this week, I believe, and maybe even the explanation of why I'm suddenly so passionate about this issue of modern-day slavery.

Thanks for dropping in!

Back and mostly rested ...

I am back in town for at least a couple of weeks. The break was good, and I now need to recharge my life, i.e. buy groceries, pay bills, do laundry, put suitcase away, check bank balance. Probably should do those in reverse order, but the eating seems so much more pressing after a week of constant buffets and good friends.

The break created enough mental space for me to sense a prompting to write more about slavery and the generally pathetic response of Western Christians to this and other human rights issues. Most days, I couldn't care less about politics. That hasn't changed, and in fact, I feel compelled to act because government so often fails those who are most powerless. The cruise (with its international staff working long hours to keep cranky Americans happy) reminded me that in the world's eyes, I am a rich, entitled, well-educated person who is only using a fraction of God's blessings to be His hands and feet in a world destroyed by sin.

It appears that more thoughts will follow this post once I've caught up to life again. Please join me in finding the way from pathetic to engaged. And comment a lot. I know that my logic isn't flawless, so challenge me. And if you want to join in this battle (for we are fighting true evil here) please, please, please comment. Many thanks to those who have read and sent encouragement.