So today, I'm getting ahead start on sermon prep for Sunday coming.  I have some ideas, and a rough trajectory in mind, but now it's time to read commentaries and start the mulling.

Walter Brueggemann on the psalms - one of my favourites with his threefold schema of orientation, disorientation and reorientation.  Among the books I have is a pocket-sized one called 'Spirituality of the Psalms' and it's just wonderful.  I am tempted to quote a large chunk of it in Sunday's sermon because it says so eloquently more than I oculd ever say.  If I don't go with quoting, I'll almost certainly put it on a handout, it's just so good.

The Word Biblical Commentary Volume 21 and a focus on the psalm that will form the centre of my sermon.  Not shrinking from the cursing with which the psalm closes, the writer, Leslie C Allen, quotes a novel by P D James (and as I read the citation, I recalled using this in a sermon a couple of years or so ago).  I've been looking for something new to read for a while, so have ordered, not the book mentioned, but the first in the series of which it is part.

And then is the annoying ear-worm that goes with this psalm and having been a child/adolesecent in the 1970s... Boney M have a lot to answer for!!

So now, into mull mode proper.  An extended quotation to scan or transcribe.  And, with God's help, a sermon will come out at the other end.

Last week was a day trip to Selly Oak by train - and I was entertained by the unicorn-shaped hole made by the train manager during a ticket inspection.  So much nicer than the scribble with a black pen that is so often the case.

Trains continue to be a theme this week and beyond...

Tomorrow it's a day trip to Ormskirk to meet the NAM I am mentoring for BUGB.  Whilst I will sneak a quick lunch with a friend, it is basically work all day - my laptop will accompany me and my hope is to make good use of the journey.

Wednesday is 'quieter' only local Glasgow trains, but four meetings/appointments so quite a busy day.

Thursday and Friday it's destination Airbles (Motherwell) for the Baptist Assembly, where, this year, I have somehow agreed to staff the stand for Operation Agri during the 'breaks'.  I am looking forward to catching up with folk, learning what the Union is up to, and celebrating God's goodness.

Then a weekend 'at home' before I head off to Bangor next Monday for a five day silent retreat in Wales.  A retreat - not a holiday as some folk are wont to call it.  For sure, I take annual leave to do it, but it's very intentional and 'churchy'.  Inevitably there will be service prep to be done in the train, and I come back to a full on weekend of Bible study and services.

Were that not enough, the next week is a very long day-trip to Birmingham for the BMS Catalyst Live event - a glorious miscellany of theology, spirituality and sharing.  I think given I will leave home a little after 3 a.m. that day, sleeping rather than working seems a good diea for the outbound journey.

Don't misunderstand, I love being part of wider Baptist life, and feel that, overall, it is good for my own folk that I do so.  It's just a challenge sometimes, when everything seems to land at once, trying to fit everything in that I want - as well as need - to do. Hence, today is not fully 'off' as I've decided to spread the load a little.

Still, if I get more unicorn stamps on my tickets, I will be one happy bunny!!