Promise or Preparation

I found myself in quite a predicament, this past preparation day.  Thursday, I'd gotten myself all "prettied up," well the best I could do anyway, to do some videos.  The production program for "BEFORE It Was HEADLINES It Was PROPHECY" is already set up on my office computer, so that went as planned.  The instructional demonstration I did, however; was on a different computer and didn't go so well, but I didn't know it until the next morning.  I went to bed just sure it would be a simple edit while I drank my morning coffee . . . I was terribly wrong.

With the realization that an instructional video required sound, and I'd already spent a great deal of time trying to make that happen, I had no choice but to re-do the video.  That may sound like no big deal, but believe me it was a big deal!  The biggest part of the problem was, I still didn't know how to fix the problem.  I've had a hate/hate relationship with this computer since I bought it.    It was very important to me, to not use the ministry set for business, which is why I was trying to operate with a different computer in a different location. With that priority in mind, I decided to install some new software in a computer that I preferred.

As you have already probably surmised, preparation day was slipping by.  I knew two things as this project was now expanded into two days.  The first realization that came to me was the idea that the first video was not what it needed to be.  Either I had omitted something important or added too much, or just nervously rambled . . . I'll never know with no sound.     I've come to accept redos in media ministry, and am actually quite grateful to have a second chance.

The second thing that occurred to me, though, was just as profound, but new to my awareness.  I've scheduled my life around Preparation Day and Shabbat for so many years, I guess it just had never come up before.  I've tried to tie up loose ends on Thursday to keep Preparation day open for baking, cooking, and cleaning, but this time there was a new variable.  I'd given my word to some people and I needed to do everything in my power to deliver on that promise before Shabbat began.  So, I had til sunset and the sun wasn't waiting.

The following is not an exact quote from a verse in Scripture, included in one of my favorite services in the Prayer Book, "that we keep our word, regardless of the personal cost."  As the sun was sailing across the sky on preparation day, I simply asked YHWH to help me get that video accomplished and bring glory to Him.  An experimental dinner was already planned and "official" Passover housecleaning begins at the new moon, and YHWH answered my prayer in the affirmative.  Before sunset, the critters were fed and watered, dinner was in the oven, a double batch of non-GMO popcorn was popped, the old fashioned way . . . and this video  was published to youtube.  As for the rest, a traditional routine is not nearly as important as a promise kept!