"back to normal"

I guess life is back to normal. School has started and the carpool becomes the fixed time of my weekly schedule. I wonder if this is "wasted time." I shouldn't be taking my time to do this. I should be doing more "important" minister stuff and someone else should do this "less important" stuff.

Its interesting how value and worth are part of our consciousness. That's what's at play for me around the time spent every other week picking up the carpool of six girls (including my two daughters) from Miller South School for the Visual and Performing Arts. Why is the time spent in this matter of safety, secruity and relationship less important?

I think the main thing is their age. I should be "pastoring" more responsible adults, who are also offering paying members of the church. (I write this with tongue in cheek. That's why I am using so many quotation marks in this piece.) The ordering of daily life is not easy. It involves choices. And ultimately I am responsible for those choices. I have chosen to participate in the carpool with three other families. It is a different world to hear the conversations of these fifth through eighth graders. It is a unique experience to engage with all of them in a time of observation and conversation. It is of high value in God's eyes.