a new name tag

It is weird no longer wearing a church name tag or carrying a minister's business card. There are things I confess I already miss. To be entirely transparent, I miss being seen as having something official to say about faith, about God. When you are on staff at a church, people lend their ear to your words on these subjects and they expect you to have something helpful to say. When you no longer carry that card, your opinion is not wrapped in the same official "he might know what he's talking about" packaging. You're just a guy, who likes to ramble on about atonement and a bunch of Hebrew midrash stuff. I also miss being known by a community. I miss walking into a building full of people and having some kind of connection to all of them either through a handshake, a hug, or through a microphoned-prayer. There is a strong sense of isolation which comes when that microphone is forever disconnected and your identity is not known by a large, connected community. I think both of those voids have led me to desire to blog more often. I want people to hear what I think about things. Even if they think differently... I want to have a pulpit or a soap box. I also want to have connections to a community, even if this amounts to a virtual microphone or digital hugs and handshakes. I think after 15 years it is strange no longer having an audience. And if I can be honest, I miss it.

So what is next? Well I hope to do some of the things I've told other people to pursue over the last decade and a half. I want to play, I want to pray, I want to create, and I want to befriend. Hopefully I will make enough money in between these priorities to fund my new life, but my career is second place at this point. I am working to live,...in every sense. I am excited about what this new chapter might entail. I have heard rumors of what can happen to the boy who gets everything they want...they live happily ever after. However, since Charlie Bucket never wrote a blog, we aren't quite sure about the accuracy of that prediction...