Watters Words

I am coming to learn that when you live your life at the disposal of others - you are pretty much out of control about 90% of the time.  I write, in part, for my living, and I have hardly had time over the past 60 days to sit in front of a blank blog screen to capture my thoughts so that I will remember what I have been doing with my life.  

Right now I am sitting in the office at our retreat house in Delafield, WI getting ready to host six pastor couples for dinner.  There are few things in life that I enjoy more than sharing a meal with spiritually minded people who enjoy talking about their lives and how they see God showing up in wonderfully miraculous and life changing ways.  

So . . . sad to say, I am out of time right now - but I have promised myself that I will get back and write a few thoughts on what has been keeping me insanely busy over the past two months.  Time for dinner!

The month of June was a blur. No really, it was a blur.  Everyone I talk to says that they are busy, and I don’t doubt that for one minute.  Sometimes we are our own worst enemy when it comes to taking on way more stuff that we have the capacity to handle.  That was the month of June.  I can’t even believe that it is July 2.  It was just May 30th a minute ago and now its July 2nd.   

I feel a little like Rip Van Winkle must have felt when he woke up from his extended sleep. Sadly, July looks like it could be a complete repeat of June.  Between travel for the ministry, our ministry at the Cottage and our work with neighbors and friends who need a little lift now and then, we are pretty much out of calendar already.  Tomorrow after work I pack up the Element and head to Madison and then to Chicago to pick up one of my three sons, my daughter and her boyfriend.  Once everyone is assembled in said Element we are off on a four hour jaunt to Bushnell, Il to join in the three day Cornerstone Festival.  

In years gone by this was an annual event for the family.  We even rented a portable crib when our oldest son was a baby so that we could all make the trip and be able to camp in reasonable comfort. That was 29 years ago - now we are off again and this time I am hoping that I will be able to keep up with my 20 somethings as they dart around the massive festival grounds in search of an epiphany.  

I am pretty excited to see Shane Claiborne.  Shane will be there as part of his Jesus for President tour.  Shane and I haven’t met yet, but we both had the privilege of endorsing Doug Pagitt’s new book A Christianity Worth Believing.  

I wimped out this year - instead of loading the Element with various pieces of camping equipment, I secured a nice cool motel room about 30 miles from the festival grounds.  The older I get the more of an affinity I have for simple things like showers that work well, for toilets that flush and for a roof that doesn’t leak when the inevitable thunderstorm rolls through the festival at 3:00AM.  

If you are going to the festival let me know where you will be and perhaps we can sit in the shade and enjoy a coffee together.