So one major thing happened this weekend that I was absolutely not expecting. A couple of hours into my Saturday, I realized that I had lower back pain that was severe enough I could barely move it. I could only walk like a 90-year-old man: in baby steps, leaning on anything within reach, and taking breaks every few steps. This pain continued into the afternoon and slowly let up to where I could walk almost normally (yet with a lot of pain) by the evening. Sunday it loosened up some (thankfully, since I work several hours with the kids). The pain is still there now, but it is less crippling and more of a nuisance and a bother, limiting bending down and extended periods of movement. Who knew you could age 50 years in one day?

So now you know what I have not been doing this weekend. Not that water skiing or marathon running was really on the schedule anyway. Really, the back pain has hardly affected my plan for work this weekend. So don’t feel bad for me. There are plenty of people who are actually laboring on Labor Day. I’m merely doing what I love: reading. So far this holiday weekend I have:

• Read 200 pages of Ed Welch’s Depression: a Stubborn Darkness, to finish it
• Read 1 chapter of Don Whitney’s Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life
• Read 60 pages of Alvin Reid’s Intro to Evangelism
• Read 60 pages of Will McRaney’s Art of Personal Evangelism
• Read 50 pages of Robin Gaby Fisher’s After the Fire (heads up: I’ll be doing a giveaway of this book when I’m done!)
• Read 90 pages of AJ Jacobs’s Year of Living Biblically
• Read 40 pages of Julie Lessman’s A Passion Most Pure
• Read 30 pages of Andrew Murray’s Humility
• Done 2 loads of laundry (seems out of place, but there you have it)

Hmm. When you put it that way, it looks like I’ve done a ton! I would still like to:

• Read 2 chapters of Spiritual Disciplines
• Read 30 pages of Humility, to finish it
• Read 30 pages of A Passion Most Pure
• Read 55 pages of Art of Personal Evangelism
• Read bits of other books, too
• Unpack

Considering I barely did anything Sunday, it’s looking like a very productive weekend! What have you been up to? Did you use Labor Day as a fun holiday or a work holiday?