With the recent Space Shuttle flight, I have not been in my office since the 23rd. For a time I traded my normal desk for a console in the Mission Control Center Mission Evaluation Room; my normal hours for those of a nocturnal beast; my normal tasks of training, long-range planning, and meetings for those of mission operations, 24-hour replanning, and real-time safety calls. For twelve days, it was almost like a new job altogether...and one of the things I love about my job...but now it's time to return to the blessed chaos of my normal routine. By the grace of God, may I be as enthusiastic about the mundane as the exciting, the long-term as the real-time, the planning as the execution.

Lord, in this morning hour I come boldly to Your throne of grace in full assurance that there I shall obtain mercy and find grace and help in time of trouble. I need Your help and Your grace as I again return to the routine of my vocation and schedule. Grant me true faithfulness in the performance of my calling. Guard me against becoming selfish, careless, and lazy in carrying out my daily work, so that all I do has not only the appearance of being pleasing among men, but is also true service to my neighbor, that I may be a servant of Christ, doing the will of God. (from Lutheran Book of Prayer, rev. ed, Concordia, 2005)