How Do You Eat An Elephant?
by Scott Dalen
How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.
Words of wisdom that I’ve heard off and on during my 30 years, but I never really paid attention to them until last spring. I recall the time. I had a sermon to write, about 300 pages to read, postings to write, professors to email; all on top of working full time and trying to see my wife and kids every once in awhile.
So in the depths of over whelmingness (hey I think I just made up a word), I turned to the one place where I feel able to vent. Facebook. One of the guys in cohort 1 (which started a year ahead of my cohort) replied with the elephant analogy. It made sense then and since I’ve tried to hang onto that pearl of wisdom. Particularly in times when I feel over loaded, which admittedly tends to occur at the beginning of the week.
It should be needless to say that this is one of those weeks. Here we are in week 4 of the semester. Honestly, I’m not quite sure how that happened already, but somehow it has. Homework has taken an upswing this week. To quote Emeril from the Food Network, we took it up “ANOTHER NOTCH!!!”
The list is pretty long. Read the 4 Gospels, write a posting regarding comparisons on a specific subject, do a Greek study and post on that, read for the second class, do a posting based on that reading, write up a verbatim for a pastoral care session, etc etc etc. I am probably missing something because after several late nights and early mornings, the brain just isn’t quite working properly at the moment. All of this needs to be done by Friday, then I have to posts responses to my work groups over the course of the weekend.
Here’s the kicker, my sister in law is getting married this weekend, and somewhere along the line I agreed to preach the sermon for it. So I have to get that ready by Saturday. What is today? Wednesday? Right, okay, so that’s pending.
That elephant is starting look pretty big. But fortunately over the course of those late nights that have been accumulating on me, I’ve taken some pretty big bites. But there are still a lot of bites left to take. Stress? Oh yah…but light at the end of the tunnel…probably so.
One more bite Scott. Then we’ll worry about the next bite.
Words of wisdom that I’ve heard off and on during my 30 years, but I never really paid attention to them until last spring. I recall the time. I had a sermon to write, about 300 pages to read, postings to write, professors to email; all on top of working full time and trying to see my wife and kids every once in awhile.
So in the depths of over whelmingness (hey I think I just made up a word), I turned to the one place where I feel able to vent. Facebook. One of the guys in cohort 1 (which started a year ahead of my cohort) replied with the elephant analogy. It made sense then and since I’ve tried to hang onto that pearl of wisdom. Particularly in times when I feel over loaded, which admittedly tends to occur at the beginning of the week.
It should be needless to say that this is one of those weeks. Here we are in week 4 of the semester. Honestly, I’m not quite sure how that happened already, but somehow it has. Homework has taken an upswing this week. To quote Emeril from the Food Network, we took it up “ANOTHER NOTCH!!!”
The list is pretty long. Read the 4 Gospels, write a posting regarding comparisons on a specific subject, do a Greek study and post on that, read for the second class, do a posting based on that reading, write up a verbatim for a pastoral care session, etc etc etc. I am probably missing something because after several late nights and early mornings, the brain just isn’t quite working properly at the moment. All of this needs to be done by Friday, then I have to posts responses to my work groups over the course of the weekend.
Here’s the kicker, my sister in law is getting married this weekend, and somewhere along the line I agreed to preach the sermon for it. So I have to get that ready by Saturday. What is today? Wednesday? Right, okay, so that’s pending.
That elephant is starting look pretty big. But fortunately over the course of those late nights that have been accumulating on me, I’ve taken some pretty big bites. But there are still a lot of bites left to take. Stress? Oh yah…but light at the end of the tunnel…probably so.
One more bite Scott. Then we’ll worry about the next bite.
posted by Scott Dalen at 10:10 AM
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