Going Dark

It’s hard to believe that 2008 is almost over. It doesn’t seem like it was a year ago that our family was celebrating our first Christmas in the Twin Cities. So much has happened, yet the time has flown by. Overall, I’d say it was a good year, though the second half was significantly busier than the first. 

For most folks working in churches, the weeks leading up to Christmas tend to be the busiest of the year (aside from Easter). Those who are involved in service productions are especially busy. This year has been no exception to that rule for me,and on top of that, we’re less than 3 months from moving Upper Room to a yet unspecified location. To say that’s taken it’s toll would be an understatement.

So I’m going to take advantage of the fact that we’re not having church on the 28th, and a few floating holidays and take 10 days off, starting today. Well, technically, I worked today at the midnight service, but I was done by 2:30 AM. 

Normally, when I take a vacation, I spend a significant amount of time reading and writing blog posts, researching new equipment, answering e-mails (many work-related), and planning for my return to the office. Which sounds a whole lot less like a vacation than it should.

So this time around, I’ve decided to take radical action. I’m going “dark.” No e-mail, no Twitter, no blogs, no internet at all (with the possible exception of Google and Google Maps to find fun stuff to do with the family), and very limited cell phone. I’ll be off-line from now until New Year’s day. I’ll probably come back either the 1st or the 2nd, depending on how this little experiment has gone.

I figure the first few days will be hard; rather like de-tox. But once the shakes wear off, and I stop reaching instinctively for my iPod Touch to check my e-mail and Twitter, it should be good. I need to stop thinking about church planting, technology and IT stuff. I need to relax, and I need to sleep. My hope is those three things will happen.

We techies can get really addicted to our technology, sometimes to our own detriment. So I’m shutting off, just to prove I can. And because I need to.

I want to take a minute and thank all of you for reading this past year. I’m continually amazed at the number of people who take time out of your busy days to read this. The monthly page view count has increased by nearly 300% since last December, and the number of RSS subscribers is up more than that. I find that humbling and encouraging. 

So Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night! We’ll see you in the New Year!

Blessings,
mike