It was a bittersweet moment when I walked away from church ministry on July 27th. I got a barbecue lunch, a photo album, and a few good wishes and that was about it. Eight years of my life had passed me by. I was happy to be able to catch the NFL on Sundays, to be able to sit in a Eucharistic service without having to be up in front, to be able to have a weekend morning to ride my bike.
Enough stupid stuff happened in church work that made me not regret walking away. I learned a lot about what the Bible said about repaying evil with good. But all in all, it was a good experience.
Whenever I drive through the neighbourhood where I now work, it occurs to me that there are a lot of people who work a lot harder than I do for a lot less money. There's a guy on Atlantic right by the 60 who sells bags of oranges, flowers, or whatever else he seems to be able to get his hands on. I'm pretty sure he doesn't get retirement benefits.
I had a lot of grand ideas for a blog about my church life, but as time has passed, I realise that I've lost the will to fight. I've made peace with being underappreciated and underpaid. I gave away the third decade of my life, and that's just the way it is.
Sometimes I wonder how it might've been different if I'd worked a little harder in college and grad school. I took the easy way out (three times!) by studying something that interested me. This is where I ended up.
I'm trying to make my life matter. I've been given a lot. So here's my new place for writing about life and work and...well, what else is there?
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