organised?

My friend, Douglas, was in again today for a sandwich over lunch. In the course of the wide-ranging chat we have he remarks on the range of different things I manage to keep on the go.

"I could never do that," he says. "I'm not that organised."

I'm not always sure I'm all that organised myself. But I see what he means. My days are full of all sorts of varied activities and tasks. There's a lot to be kept on the go.

Admin. There are e-mails to deal with, right from the start of the day. Mail that's come in overnight which I want to address good and quick. Not because it's urgent, but because if I don't do it now, it may not ever get done. A sign of my being rather disorganised, I'd have thought. But at least I'm aware of my failings. That's half the battle sometimes.

Among the e-mails written is one to a teacher at the local primary school. I'm keen that we start the SU group this week and I want to be sure he'll have sent out a note through all of the classes at school. If we miss this week, then Thursday next week will be missed as well (there's a General Election taking place - I'm organised enough to have sussed out all the implications of that fact!), and to wait until the week beyond that is to have missed the boat completely.

Some preparation's needed! If we are going to meet this Thursday, we need to know what we're doing. I get down to the business of finalising out a programme for the coming weeks.

The summer term is difficult, with all sorts of extra things going on in the school and we're never quite sure just which and how many of the pupils will ever be there. The programme has to be flexible. I try and make sure that it is.

There's a reference I need to write. One of our fine young lads, in his sixth year at school, drops by with a form that requires my attention. He's going as a leader to one of the SU camps, and they need me to vouch for the guy.

I'm glad to do so. He's an eager and able young man, with a heart for the Lord, and I'm happy to do all the paperwork this sphere of service involves. The forms aren't large or long, but they all take time.

Over the course of the months I must do hundreds of these for SU alone, we've that many folk who're involved in these camps in one way or another. I count it a privilege to be part of a fellowship where so many are keen to be giving their time in this way. I sometimes wonder if I'd get the prize each year for the most number of references written for SU camps!

Having him come in reminds me that the man who'll be playing the piano at our lunch-time service this week will also be in this morning. He'll be looking for a note of the hymns to be sung.

I give some time to preparing the list of praise. It's never a case of just choosing a couple of well known hymns. I try to tie the praise in to the thrust of the Word of God.

So I spend a bit of time again reflecting on the passage we'll be studying at tomorrow's service. I work through some possible items of praise and decide on the hymns to be sung. And sure enough, he's in and I'm able to give him the info he needs.

A passport application requires my counter-signature. Which is more than just a signature. It requires all sorts of details from myself - my name, address, employment and employer's name and place of work, how long and in what capacity I've known the person: all sorts of things like that, including my own passport number - I have to fish this out from a hand-held 'pocket PC' which has suddenly gone on the blink.

It's good to see the person who's come in, of course, as well. She has a little child with her. I fish out from my desk a little sort of helicopter thing. It's meant to relieve stress, I think. But it makes a good toy. You press a button and the little mini helicopter thing flies off and round the room.

It does the trick. Both the wee girl and I are having fun, launching the thing round the room. The passport application form is filled in, too.

They're no sooner gone than I'm meeting with Gill. Gill is our ES-Team worker. A few years back, in conjunction with local churches, Scripture Union Scotland set up the Edinburgh Schools Team (hence ES-team). Gill is at present the person who works in the North West part of Edinburgh. I try and meet with her from time to time.

We catch up on the situation here - in the local schools, I mean. We chat a bit about the problem that there is, with the P7 children never being able to come to the group because of all the duties that they have. A year away from any SU group before they move on up to the secondary school. It's not ideal. The habit has been broken. It makes it that bit harder for an easy re-connecting with the SU group at the Royal High.

We talk about the possible use of another SU venture in the school. "It's your move" is a scheme devised by SU to help in the big transition up to secondary school. Each child gets a smart looking booklet, and there's the chance for a 45 minute 'lesson' to accompany it.

I'm keen to follow this through. We worked with the P7 children over Christmas and then Easter. It would be great to round it all off with a thing in the summer term to help with their moving on. I'm impressed by the material SU provides. It's good. I'll get onto the teachers and see if they'll run with the thing.

It's maybe an hour that I have with Gill. The time seems to fly. There's a lot going on and it's good to be able to hear of the schools and the churches she's been having some contact with. She lets me know when the next of the North West Edinburgh Prayer evenings is going to be. Prayer is basic to it all.

Prayer. Yes, that reminds me of something else I've scheduled to do.

I've a piece to write for our magazine. It's a piece about prayer. And it's due by the end of the month. Which is getting rather close now. Having seen Gill out and stopped by to chat with a few of the folk who are in for their coffee this morning, I make a start on that.

That's only one of a couple of things I've resolved that I must make a start on today.

I'm keen to see an annual 'handbook' produced. It's become apparent that that sort of thing would be useful. But because it's not 'til August/September that the thing would need to come out, it's easy to keep putting off. Another indication of a tendency I recognise to be a little disorganised.

So I start on that as well. A statement of intent, more than anything else. It's something whose importance and significance I can readily see. I want to make sure that it happens. So these few initial notes are my nailing the thing to the wall and committing myself to seeing the thing gets done.

Douglas comes in over lunch. Is it that time already? Where does a morning go? He's engrossed at the present, he tells me, in writing up an article on praying for the dead.

He sees my eyebrows are raised and explains just what this 'praying for the dead' actually is - and what it is not. It's an interesting, and at times quite illuminating discussion.

Not praying for the dead in the sense of our making petitions as such, as though their destiny could in any way be affected thereby. More our praying in the sense of our gladly remembering those who have died, with gratitude and humility, and acknowledging for them and ourselves a dependence on the grace of God.

A (helpful) reminder of the reality of what we call 'the communion of the saints'.

There are all sorts of things we end up discussing. And matters for prayer to talk through. We pray. Not for the dead, I should add. But we pray with some real earnestness for the Lord's great saving work in people's lives.

The day is running away from me once again! There are things I meant to address which I've not even started to do.

So I spend some time on preparing the evening service. I've been reading and pondering the passage these last two days at some length. I need to get a feel for how the whole thing's going to run. I take some time to prepare a tentative draft. Something to work on anyway.

There's a meeting tonight to prepare for as well. I spent a lot of time preparing for it yesterday. But I want to go over the substance again. And because it begins with a DVD being shown I get that all set up as well. I check that the whole thing is working, that the volume's going to be fine. That sort of thing.

Preparation is everything, they say. I'm not going to argue the toss on that score!

Then it's off to the hospital. There are folk to be seen. I end up filling in the menu form for one of the patients there. In discussion with the man himself, of course. But the man is beginning to get just a little bit wandered. He's also fairly deaf. And the combination of the two makes for an interesting 'discussion'.

He asks me if my father is down south. I'm not exactly sure how to answer - my geographic knowledge of the spiritual realms is plainly flawed. Since my father died more than twenty years ago I simply reply by assuring the man, yes, he's away.

I'm tempted to add, in the light of the things I've been chatting about with Douglas, that although he's away I can still of course be praying for him. But I opt not to go down that line and instead simply ask that we pray.

The man is confused. But he seems to be comforted too by the sharing in prayer that we have.

At night there's a meeting. It's a fairly important, significant one. Not easy at all. Not one that I think we any of us there really want. But we have to address all the issues and questions that big church tells us to ponder, tackle, respond to.

We do so prayerfully, carefully, thoroughly. We take our time. The meeting is long and late.

We're basically asked what we understand Scripture to say. At least, that's how we see the task before us.

We try to set out clearly, cogently - and sensitively, too - just what the Scriptures teach, and underline that Scripture, as the Word of God, must be our one authority: not what civil or European law may say, nor even what some scientists may suggest.

We end in prayer and immerse ourselves once more in the grace of God.

We live in a world that is fallen and flawed. The marks of that dis-order in our fallen world are everywhere to be seen. Not just in what too often is a lack of organisation in my life (despite what Douglas says), but in so many other vexing ways as well.

We know that, more than anything else, we need the grace of God. Each one of us. Each day.

And even as I head back home, I'm thinking of the things I might have done and could have done and maybe even should have done today.

I could end in despair over that! But I'm grateful instead for what I've been able to do; and grateful, as well, for the sense of God's presence, the sense of God's Spirit at work in all that today has involved.