This March it will have been two years since I stepped out of vocational ministry, which is to say two years since I stopped getting paid to minister.

To say that the past two years has been a tad tumultuous would be a monumental understatement. Some things have long since left as the ministry I am involved in has transitioned to where it is today, such as it is. Still other things both related and unrelated cling stubbornly to this life like parasite barnacles to the sides of ocean-worn ship hulls…corrosive and refusing to let go.

Be that as it may I find that time has a way of helping one transition and move to a place of newness, wholeness and hope. I wonder at what the future holds but not so much as to become fixated on it. I try to learn from the past but remind myself not to fall into the trap of living there and the present is as the present is…it is where I dwell – here and now.

I miss some things like preaching and the connection to youth and senior citizens but it is funny how things develop. Where once I spoke to 300 about every other month I now endeavor to speak to 30,000 every week. Where once I struggled against the walls of my office which deigned to prevent me from a high level of relationship I now find myself thrust into the community which has become my office with no walls except the ones in my mind to constrain me.

I try to resist wondering too hard what God might be up to in my life because I do not find God-as-Puppetmaster to be theologically correct. Rather God speaks and whispers, God wills and weaves and gently shows Godself as one who desires us to move along in accordance with what we know of God’s will and way.

Time moves for us and I and never stops because it is its nature and it is ours to exist within it and navigate as well as we can given the circumstances and who we are.