By DAVID EPPS
Pastor

There's not much to say in the column this week. The truth is, I don't have time to write this week. As I type these words, it's 10 p.m. on Tuesday evening and my deadline at the newspaper is tomorrow by noon. I thought about writing about video poker, or about a wonderfully silly gaffe one of my sons committed recently, or about how atrocious the new Georgia state flag is and how I wish they'd left well enough alone. But I don't have time.

I have to get up at 4 a.m. tomorrow and open up our chapel by 4:30 and be at someone's house by 4:45. Tomorrow, I will be up an hour before the Marine Corps recruits at Parris Island ever hear the waking call of their drill instructors. Tomorrow, a friend and church member travels to Emory University Hospital for the removal of a brain tumor. Tomorrow, I will travel with the family and, along with a number of other church members, sit, and pray, and wait.

Meanwhile, people back home will be coming into the chapel that was unlocked at 4:45 a.m. to pray for this man, their friend and brother, prior to going to work. Some of them will come by during the mid-morning and others will attend the noon prayer and communion service and intercede for this family at this stressful time.

Later in the day, I will travel to Northside Hospital and be with a woman and her family as she endures another difficult procedure, one in a series of long and difficult procedures. Somewhere during this day, I have to find time to do the daily prayers and scripture readings. Sometime during the night, I will return to Emory Hospital and sit in the Intensive Care Unit and pray some more. I haven't decided whether to return home late that night, get a room in North Atlanta, or just spend all night in the waiting room like I did last week.

I really don't have time to drive back home because I have to be at Scottish Rite Hospital the following morning to sit with the family of a little redheaded 5-year-old who has to have a painful operation. I'll get there early, the Lord and the traffic willing, and pray with the parents and the little guy who is much too young to know just what is happening. If he is like most kids, he will be scared and, if his parents are like most parents, they will be scared, too.

Then, I'll go back to Emory Hospital, then back to Northside, and, sometime during the late afternoon or early evening, go back to Scottish Rite. At 5:30 p.m., I have to meet a couple back at the office and, at 7 p.m. have to lead a home group and do a teaching on the Sacrament of Marriage and explain how that rite is not so unlike the Sacrament of Holy Orders. At 10 p.m., I'll be back at home, if all goes well. That should be just in time to do the daily scriptures and the daily prayers.

Friday will find me at the three Atlanta hospitals again and try to get back in time for a meeting. Saturday, I need to be at the men's breakfast to share some time with the men of the church. During the afternoon, I'll revisit the people who are still in the hospital and, somewhere, sometime, I'll finish Sunday's sermon.

On Sunday, after church, I have a pizza lunch meeting, which will last several hours. I will be meeting with the middle high school students and their teachers to try to answer the probing questions left over from the summer confirmation classes. Then, at 5 p.m., I have an appointment with someone who wants to share the Rite of Reconciliation (or what we call "confession" these days) and then I'll have a dinner meeting with a young engaged couple and spend the next couple of hours answering questions (and asking a few) as we plan for the future.

I probably won't have time to go back to the hospitals, but I'll make telephone calls if everyone seems to be recovering well. And I still have to do the scripture readings and the prayers on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

I'm not complaining, as I'm sure you understand. I'm a pastor and being with the people is what pastors do, or at least the pastors that I know. A few years ago, a young pastor asked me, "When do you reach the point in your career when you don't have to go to the hospitals anymore?" What a question! I have never understood why a pastor would want to avoid being with his people during these faith-testing times.

I am a biological father and I am a spiritual father. If my biological children need me, I will be there for them. If my spiritual children need me, I will be there for them, too. Some weeks are pretty light and it's easy to find the time to do everything you need to do. Other weeks, it seems that the schedule is seven days of 24 hours of nonstop ministry. This is one of those weeks.

So, you'll please forgive me if I don't write anything humorous, or profound, or thought-provoking, or irritating. I am a pastor/father first and a writer second. And this week, I just don't have time to be both. I need to be with my people.

[Father David Epps is rector of Christ the King Church in Peachtree City. He may be contacted at FatherDavidEpps@aol.com Or at www.ChristTheKingCEC.com.]

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