Ever-Constant Change

Octavia Butler was right.

So, this here is a picture of me from senior year of college. I was about to graduate and a friend took this photo as part of my application to be a “Summer Missionary” with the Virginia Baptist General Board. I would end up serving on a creative arts ministry team as a singer. We were actually pretty good, if memory serves. I learned a lot that summer.

I’ve been thinking a lot about this kid lately and I am not sure why. Maybe because it is graduation season. So many young kids are being launched into the world. If you have a picture of your college graduate self, please feel free to share. I would love to meet you.

One of the things I learned is that change is constant. Life is not a set of data points we move to and from. It is change. Life is change. It is relentless. Sometimes cruel. Sometimes beautiful. We have a lot of responsibility and power in how change comes about at the same time that it feels like we exist at the whims of Fate. Weird. It’s all very strange. But here we are. Might as well make a go of it.

I have spent the last two years working as a substitute teacher. I would never have chosen that for myself unless necessary. It became necessary and I ended up loving it. The last day of school of this academic year is June 9. We’re so close to the end, I can taste it. I’m going to buy a copy of the yearbook. Ha! These kids have changed me.

On June 12, however, I will begin a new thing. It will be my first day as a hospice chaplain with Bon Secours. I will serve home hospice and facility patients and their families. The position came open and I applied. During the interview process, it became clear to me that I am not done with this ministry thing and it is not done with me. Interfaith, holistic, and quirky, the gig promises to be very interesting. The full-time work benefits are also a boon. We’ve been living without those for three years now. Thank God for ObamaCare.

I am going to miss the kids and my colleagues so very much. I loved teaching and I cannot imagine I’m done with it. I cannot predict the future, but I can see the possibility of more time with more kids. We’ll see what unfolds. Change is life. Life is change.

What does that mean for us here? I cannot rightly say yet. My schedule will change and getting up at 4:30 will be less frequent. I will certainly be writing. I will certainly have a lot to write about. I will be chewing on my faith with some regularity, I imagine. We’ll see what holds water in the face of this kind of work.

I hope you will stay with me and be patient as things shift and grow. I’m on a voyage of discovery. I’m looking forward to sharing what I learn.

Y’all be excellent to each other.