I recently saw a friend who had been present throughout the chaos of the past year. He wasn’t present for every step of the unfolding, but because he only saw and sees me intermittently, he was able to say that I looked genuinely happier than I’ve had in the past year. That’s a good sign to me. Sometimes I can’t see how I’ve changed because its gradual and I’m grateful for his perspective.
I haven’t updated much here because in early June I started a new job as a “Digital Media and Technology Coordinator” at a local seminary. The formal role is a mouthful but in the past few months, I’ve done some work that does properly fit in the description: organizing tech assets in the office, setting up A/V for some classes, looking through the media archive and trying to make sense of it. Website updates. I’ve done some role-adjacent tasks: I developed a small web app for cataloging ministry-related events for use by staff and alumni. I cleaned up some email/newsletter templates. I extracted data from ~20 year old laptops. And then there were some really random tasks: carpentry work, gardening tasks, creating an audio player prototype for use in an art exhibit, oh! and ordering office swag.
And it’s probably is more than I should be doing in the role I’ve been hired for, but at this point I don’t mind being put to use. I think the seminary does good work and I’m happy that some of my knowledge and experience gets put to use. There are some hints of aspects of work that are concerning, but overall I’m grateful. I want to operate here for a while with grace and openness.
At work I also get to engage in some interesting conversations because the staff is pretty diverse and the students that come through are from various traditions. The environment has been a good inner-dialog partner as I seek to articulate the faith I hold dearly. What’s the beauty of the faith? of scripture? of church? What can be held firm? What need to be held loosely with openness and curiosity? What actually matters for the flourishing of neighborhoods and communities?
As I’m writing this on the last day of August, things will change in the fall. Not only will school return and we’ll need to find new rhythms, but I’m less than a month from the check-in I promised myself as I’m marking one year from the church that I was pushed out from. I believe I’m in a diff place with that than I was last year… or in February… or even last week. I still think about it at least a few times a week… but thats a decrease from the multiple-times-a-day rate it was earlier in my grief. My journey in that is far from done, but today at the end of summer I celebrate that God has been faithful and will continue to be present with me as he takes me through various seasons.
The photo with this post if from a last minute trip to Yosemite to top off the summer. It was such a good trip for the heart and soul. I’m looking forward to the fall with optimism and hope.