From my journal:Operation Downsizing has been underway in our home for about a month now, and we are on plan. The garage gleams; book shelves are purged (more than I'd wished, less than my wife, Gail, wishes); and breakfast can now be served on the basement floor. Unneeded furniture is gone; tools unused for years are repaired, and old computer peripherals are given away. The town dump is a better place because of us. The to-do list is getting shorter.

We've wanted to do all this for years, but some other priority always got in the way. There was always a compelling reason to postpone Operation Downsizing (we call it OD) and do something else. But early this summer we reached a tipping point in life, and re-sizing and re-ordering our living space became a passion.

In the office phase of OD, I spent several hours going through files that have not seen the light of day for twenty-five years. There are letters and memos that reflect life and leadership in my first years of pastoral ministry. ...