PTO

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”  Matthew 11:28

Back in the day, when I was a freshman in high school, my uncle gave me summer work on his farm south of Seward, NE.  It was then that I learned the acronym ‘PTO’ stood for Power Take Off and it was a shaft on the tractor that powered various pieces of equipment.  And I needed to stay away from it as he told me of many farmers who had received serious injuries being entangled in the shaft.

Throughout high school, college and my job with the State of Nebraska, there were literally hundreds of other acronyms that clogged my memory bank.  Even while living in Haiti, acronyms from the LCMS World Missions would find their way into my daily life.  And now, my daughters frequently text me an acronym that I have never heard or used.  Once in a while, I stump them with one of my own…made up.

Today, PTO is for you.  I need to take some Personal Time Off.  I just need to get away for a few weeks and rest.  With the price of gasoline, I can’t afford to go anywhere.  I just want to turn off the television, stay off the Internet and read a few books, water my tomatoes and cucumbers, and sit on the deck, soak up His creation and catch a few of my grandson’s baseball games with his mom Deidre by my side.  Have a blessed week.  I will be back in a few.

Heavenly Father, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown.  Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.  Amen.

May God be with you…Jay