Yes, the song is a re-post...so sue me. It's gorgeous. In other news, it has been an insanely busy month, in case the dearth of updates did not give that away. Since mid-July, I have....
-gotten back together with Emily
-ridden my bike most of the way across Iowa
-said goodbye to Dayton, Iowa
-driven a moving van across Iowa and Illinois back to Chicago
-settled into a new apartment
-Gotten pink eye, which caused me to miss a good friend's wedding
-flown to Texas to visit family and friends-who-are-family-in-my-mind
-preached at a Lutheran church on the SW Side
Now, I get to catch my breath...for a couple of days. YAGM orientation starts on Wednesday, and it will, no doubt, be an insanely wonderful busy week of 18 hour days spent with 50 outstanding young adults who are getting ready to spend the next year of their lives abroad, being surprised by how God meets them wherever they land. Then, another few days of breath-catching, and then returning student retreat/fall registration, then a long weekend, and then classes. Senior year.
It doesn't quite feel real, yet, that I'm nearly done with my seminary, and candidacy, journey. By the end of tomorrow, I'll have sent my edited approval essay to my candidacy committee chair (knock on wood); by the end of December, I'll (knock on wood) be approved to take a call and will have turned in first call paperwork, including geographic preference forms. More than ever, the future is looming over me - and this time, it's not just short-term choices that affect where I land for a year. I'm watching the birthing of a career, of living in the same place for an extended period of time, without moving around and spending summers elsewhere only to come back to a new apartment and new roommates, for the first time in my life.
It's exciting, mostly. As much as I love wandering, I'm ready to settle down somewhere for a while. I'm ready to find another congregation, like Emanuel, full of people who want to find ways to proclaim the Gospel and form Christian community...and, this time, be able to put down roots. I'm ready to arrive at a point in life where I can actually look at marrying and starting a family and say that, realistically, it's feasible.
Of course, the nervousness comes with it. Where will I land? I'm planning to make it clear that I want to stay in the Upper Midwest; will I actually get to do that? What if I get sent back to Texas (dear God, please no....)? What if I get sent to another extremely rural area because I have ministry experience in that sort of an environment? What'll I do? Even if I do get to be where I'd like geographically speaking, what sort of congregation will I find? Will I get to lead a group of mission-minded, progressive-thinking Christ-followers who are willing to embrace all of the scandal and risk that the Gospel entails, or will I find myself at a church where lutefisk and krumkake take precedence over serving others and sharing the Good News?
Then again, even as those thoughts fill my head, I remember that, a year ago, I was two weeks into my year in the last place on earth I'd have ever chosen to live. Not that I really want to dive deep into rural living again, but God found me there in southeast Webster County and equipped me for the things to which I was called to do there. Same goes for Bethlehem in Beverly, Boulder, Montevideo, Ghana, Seguin, and Lake Jackson. Wherever the Wind of God (no coincidence that "spirit" and "wind" are the same word...) blows me, I know I'll find what I need. Here's hoping it blows to Regions 3 or 5, but even if it doesn't...I'll have what I need.
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