Moving Forward

It's official--the Board has recommended me for commissioning this year.

That means the powers that be have affirmed my call to and my gifts for ministry. It means this coming year I'll have a job, a real one. I'll find my own place (to live) and find my niche in a new place (geographically), near or far. It means life has finally started to move forward.

This year, for the most part, has just seemed so static. I'm back home, which there's nothing wrong with, but it's just not what you have in mind for your life when you're 26 and finished with grad school. I've worked at jobs that don't mean much to me, whether I actively hate them (Staples) or just feel like I'm not in any one place long enough to be invested or make any sort of difference (subbing). It hasn't been a bad year. It's just been a year of waiting, of feeling like I should be moving on but can't, of frustration that my gifts and passions are going to waste.

I know that there is grace in there. I know that this year has brought blessings that I never would have had if I'd moved on in the way I wanted and expected to. I wouldn't have worked at Rising Hope, or gotten to see new parts of the world, or been able to spend some time at home with my grandmother before she died, or built up my character considerably during my brief foray into retail. I know that life come July, when I start working in a church, won't always be sunshine and rainbows, and probably sometimes I will feel like nothing's going anywhere and my gifts and passions are going to waste. And I know that life isn't just the big things that happen but all of the frustrating, mundane, static, sacred days as well.

But I hope that this year since graduation will help me remember to give thanks for this coming opportunity to live my life doing something I love and feel called to. Even on the non-rainbow days. For now, I'm excited about moving forward :)