So, I've been promising an update on my life, and have been failing to deliver the goods on that front. I figure since I'm pretty much in a "can't focus on homework" haze right now thanks to the pending regional assignment for first call candidates, now's a good time to, finally, bear down on the sharing life news front.
So, two things merit reporting - one professional, one personal. In that order...
Professional: Since mid-December, I've been working as the bilingual pastoral assistant at First Lutheran Church of Logan Square, on the Northwest Side. At a congregation that worships between 50 and 60 on a Sunday, roughly half are native Spanish speakers, and probably 20-25% are homeless. It is quite probably the most ethnically diverse congregation in the synod, and also probably up there in terms of socioeconomic diversity, too. In addition to leading the pre-worship Bible study (at which I am probably the only person with stable housing and employment), I help lead worship...since the pastor's been out of town for the last several weeks, I've had the opportunity to preach and preside for basically the entirety of time after Epiphany, which has been GREAT. It's a wonderful reminder of why I'm doing what I'm doing...which at moments like this, in which I feel like my life is in a weird state of suspended animation and I'm desperately praying that the Church listens to my voice in the assignment process, is really needed and helpful. It's a wonderful congregation - plenty of challenges, to be sure, but a delightful community that models what it looks like to engage with the reality in which the Church finds herself.
Personal: So, Colleen and I have been together for closing in on six weeks. We met through a mutual friend; I was interested from the get-go, and after break, I decided to act on it. Angie (mutual friend) conveniently arranged a joint hang-out time for the three of us, and...well, things took off rather nicely from there. I could probably write entirely too much in the way of details about the first few dates; suffice it to say I think she's amazing, and perfect for me. I love her, and look forward to seeing where we go and what we build together.
So, yeah...2012 has been pretty great so far, and thank God for that. 2011 was rough as years go; not that I'm alone in this, but it's not a time in my life that I'd go back and repeat. Plenty of good in the midst of it, too, but these days, I feel like I've woken up from a long, sullen sleep in a dark, dark room, and the morning light is streaming in at long last. And that's why, ultimately, Wednesday doesn't worry me. I'll land on my feet...I would like for them to be landing within a day's drive or less of Chicago, but I can always ask to be reassigned at the end of the day, if that's where the Spirit leads me. For now, I know that I'm called and equipped for ministry, and that I'm blessed to be sharing my life with an uncompromisingly beautiful, smart-as-a-whip woman who loves me for just who I am. I don't know that I can ask for anything more.
