What I’m Thinking: Sabbatical

In February I begin a three month sabbatical, and I’m thinking about my plans for that time.

Here’s a transcript:

I’m thinking not about a Scripture text for this coming Sunday, but about the next three months. In February, March, and April of this year, I will be on sabbatical: refreshing myself, learning new things, and working on some projects before I step back into the pulpit and take up the responsibilities once more of being pastor of Church of the Holy Cross.

There are two items on my “To-Do” list for this sabbatical. One is simply to visit the other islands of Hawai’i. In eight years of service here — nearly nine, actually — at Church of the Holy Cross, I’ve spent the vast majority of my time (appropriately) on Hawaii island. I’ve only been, I think, to Maui three times, and I’ve probably spent less than twenty days total on O’ahu. I haven’t been to Kauai or Moloka’i or Lana’i at all. So it’s time fix that, to learn a little bit more about my neighbors here in the Hawaiian Island chain, and also to encounter some of the special beauties, the unique features, of each of these islands.

My first trip, ironically enough, is scheduled for O’ahu — there are reasons for that — but I am planning to get to Kauai in the beginning of March.

The second project, and the one that will I think take up the bulk of the time, is to look over the stories that I’ve been telling in worship for the last few years, and to make a collection of some of them and prepare them to be published. That’s going to mean reworking them in some cases for a printed format. It will also, I hope, mean towards the end of the time that I’ll begin working with identifying a publisher and persuading a publisher that this is a good idea, and see what we can do about getting that part of the process going.

I really don’t have much idea of how long all this will take. I’m told that even with a head start I have with, frankly, the bulk of the material already written, that it will still take longer than the three months that I’ve given it to get this process rolling. But that is the idea, and with any luck at some point I’ll be able to tell you during one of these What I’m Thinking episodes that there is a book out there with a collection of stories available for you to read.

This does mean that What I’m Thinking will also take a sabbatical, because during this time I will not be doing this regular production. So look for me once more in May as I take a look at the Scripture that I’ll be preaching on that first Sunday in May, and letting you know what I’m thinking.

Well, that is what I’m thinking and I am curious to hear what you’re thinking. Leave me your thoughts in the comment section below. I’d love to hear from you.