One Giant Step For Summerkind

A week ago today I was sitting down to lunch with my pastor talking about a program my church is going through called New Beginnings. In a nutshell, our church is at a point in its life where something needs to change or it will die. Let me take a second to stress that it's not just my church but Church in general. Little did I know that this discussion would lead me to realize that I myself was at the doorstep of my own new beginning. Let me backtrack a moment. For the better part of 2012 I have been feeling stuck in my life. A promotion at work that had been practically promised to me was given to someone else. Work became stagnant. The relationship I was in ended. Money was getting tighter. As I approached my 34th birthday I struggled with feeling like I certainly wasn't where I thought I would be at this point in my life, nor was I where I wanted to be.All I knew was that I couldn't be in the same place a year from now. I knew SOMETHING. needed to change and I didn't know what. My prayers at night were pretty much me begging God to show me what that change was because I had absolutely no clue. Okay, I think we're caught up to last week now. In the course of lunch with Pastor Deb she asked me the question I had been asking myself for months: "What are you doing with your life?" I told her I was trying to figure that out. She then asked me, "Have you ever thought about ministry? " Truthfully I never had. That seemed like something for a person better than me or someone who had all the answers. But I started thinking about it, and then I couldn't stop thinking about it. I did an "unofficial poll" of family and friends and got a hugely positive response. The more I thought the more I liked the idea. If I truly felt an excitement to help lead and push the Church forward and a deep desire to LEARN, then why the heck not? And as I started leaning more and more to saying yes, one thought kept coming to me as I looked back at the past 34 years - God has been leading me here my whole life. I don't know where this journey will take me but I sure am excited. It will be a long and sometimes difficult process. If you are reading this then I like to think and hope you are cheering me on. Maybe you're just curious about the process. But we can learn and grow together.