"It's hard to dance with the devil on your back"

Crosslynk recently posted about the lovely aroma given off by some rather nondescript bush visible through the kitchen window. It's the same kind of wild growth that surrounds train yards and other random places. This has much to do about skipping church because a patch of sweet-smelling hedge-stuff near a train yard got between me and church this morning. I stopped to photograph it and of course lost track (I know, I know) of time. Any normal person could have photographed that bush and three trains and be done in 15 minutes. Not I. I realized what time it was when No. 117 rolled by making usual (rude) train noises. I got the camera out of the bush in time to get one frame of the train and keep its driver from thinking I was out of (or actually in) my tree. The photos are posted below. I tried to make the top photo about life-size. The version underneath is for folks with really bad eyesight, like mine.

 

Houston, I have a problem. Actually, I was calling God. Or really actually trying to hear how God is calling me. Am I supposed to continue in a ministry or give it up, maybe to do something else or just because it's so frustrating? And after what I've read in others' blogs, its trivial compared to what those others are going through. It's still making me crazy.

We have a PowerPoint ministry team at church. Duty rotates, with a schedule of preparers and operators. My turn to illustrate the sermon comes around about once every five weeks. I began doing the ministry as a way to both learn the software and be of service. I am severely Microsoft-challenged, but had bought Office-X with my laptop with hopes of wiggling into the 20th century by maybe 2003. It was a textbook case of wishful thinking. For one, I can't type. This entry will take about two hours to complete. And second, "computer help" files are in the top five on the oxymoron list. They don't.

Refocusing, this is a ministry for God, to help reveal His word, not a programming contest. And I learned enough to provide a presentation. But everyone else's are so arty and use cool video sometimes. When I do that the slides don't work, for why I have yet to figure out. My favorite fonts don't work, and some ppt animations don't work. Often, to make a piece of art I have to restart the 'puter, and reboot again to use the art. Let's not get into the expense of replacing the laptop, upgrading software, etc. That's a money problem.

The ministry problem is should I be doing these ppts? Should I be doing something else? Are the physical and fiscal problems signs that I am being un-called, or that I never was called but it was me thinking I had a bright idea? Or is some force of darkness trying to line my ceiling with  clouds.

What would I rather do? Play in the band, make videos, make mission documentaries, find the local InterFaith Hospitality Network a new home.  Now there's a real problem. The agency that helps homeless families is about to be homeless. They don't Just need a house. They need a home. I know that was random, but is true. Not everywhere, just in the nearby burg that fancies itself a sustainable modern city.