Right around the time of the attacks of
9/11/2001, my boss retired. His boss was defeated in her re-election bid and
County Council, in a display of power, eliminated two positions from the county
labor force. One was vacant. The other was occupied by me. Five months later, I
was hired at Sears and I remember thinking, "Oh no, they hired me. Now
what am I going to do?" The people with whom I worked were often wonderful
people, but I think they'll understand when I say that I found myself feeling
like Joseph. I hadn't done anything wrong, but I was in prison. Leaving there
to come here was like being released from prison. There was joy at being free
and fear about what the future will hold. Will I make it? Or will I end up back
in prison?
Since I came down here with the idea
of becoming a writer, I've found myself working on articles or chapters that
are more challenging that I thought they'd be. They're not only challenging to
write, but to my thinking and to the thinking of my audience. It's always been
my goal to make people think, but this is foreign territory. It's interesting.
It's intimidating.
Another
goal coming here was to find a church. Last week I wrote about my adventures in
that regard. You know that old saying about finding something in the last place
you look. That seems to be the case. I had wanted to find a church where I
could effectively sit in the back and contribute without responsibility. The
last place on my list of potential church homes was the church that meets at
the rec hall of the resort where we're
staying. Over the past week, however, I have found my thinking going in
a different direction. As I've walked around the dog friendly part of the
resort every morning - often before sunrise - and prayed for my neighbors, I
have had the opportunity to look at license plates. I've seen them from as far
northeast as Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and Quebec and as far north and
west as Alberta, Michigan, Indiana and Iowa. When the resort is full there are
probably 800-1000 people living here. I don't know how many attend the church
here, but when I went there this morning I got the sense that I had found what
I was looking for in the last place I would have looked.
The idea of
influencing these people; of purposely setting out with the idea of somehow
ministering to them is intimidating. I have loved ministries in which I was
involved before, but they almost always
seemed to end badly. I have no idea what sort of deliberate, responsible
ministry I can possibly have here - it's too early to tell. That just seems to
be the direction the road I'm on is taking me.
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