Friday, December 2, 2011

My Last Year In My 20s

Yesterday was my birthday and I had a great day of celebrating. It started with 3 rounds of disc golf, continued with a few hours of rock climbing at the gym, and concluded with the senior recital of one of Mandy's work-study students. It was a fantastic day...but the celebration continues this evening. Since last night was a Thursday night, we had decided to hang out with our friends tonight instead. So tonight we are getting together for dinner with a bunch of friends and then we are all going to the Family Fun Center in Renton for some mini-golf, go carts, and batting cages. Should be a great time.

A co-worker asked me on Wednesday if my last year had been a good one. I instantly replied that it hadn't really been all that great and that I thought the next year would be better. I said this because I still feel like Mandy and I are in this strange liminal space where we are waiting for the next step. I will be graduating in April and am pursuing ordination, so for now we are just having to be patient. While I really do believe that this next year (my last year in my 20s) will be a great year, the more I thought about the year that was, the less negative I was about it.

This past year really has been a great one. The main reason it was great was that we got to spend 2 weeks in Africa visiting our friends Brian and Nicole. This was an amazing adventure that I will NEVER forget, and was truly the highlight of our year. But this last year also included a lot of other fun trips. We spent a weekend in Portland with David and Michelle, I spent a weekend in Squamish mountain biking and rock climbing with David and Matt B., we were in Ohio for Matt A. and Michelle's wedding, I spent a week in San Diego at a conference with some friends, and a group of us were in Whistler mountain biking for 3 days. All in all, a lot of great traveling.

This year also saw us move into a nice, new apartment with a great view overlooking the Cascades (which I am enjoying right now). This larger apartment also afforded us the space for Mandy's sister Kathy to come live with us for a while. It has been great having her here and getting to know her as an adult. What a blessing.

I'm grateful to my co-worker for asking me about my year, because it has invited me to process the year that was and to celebrate, rather than simply lament the frustrations of our future uncertainty. This has been a great year of great adventures with great friends and family. Truly a blessed season of life.

6 comments:

  1. What process of ordination are you planning on pursuing. With whom?

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  2. I'm working toward being ordained in the Disciples of Christ. Still in the very beginning stages of the process though. Hopefully I'll be ordained sometime in the next year.

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  3. A lot of it was just dumb luck. I had found myself without a denominational home for a while and was beginning to look for a good fit when I all of a sudden started meeting a bunch of Disciples folks. I started researching them and it just seemed like a good fit. They are mainline, yet congregationally organized. They are non-credal. They give a lot of theological flexibility yet are still united through the Eucharist. They have a huge emphasis on social justice. They are attempting to progress their denomination through a huge church planting/revitalization project. I guess those are some of the main reasons I am drawn there.

    Do you know much about the Disciples? I hadn't even heard of them until a few years ago. I don't remember any Disciples churches in Montana. There were a few, I think, but I just didn't know about them.

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  4. I know a little bit about the Disciples. But not a lot. I know that most Disciples churches have an elder driven leadership board. I know they have communion every week. And I have been told that Disciple's theology of salvation is a little different than what I know, but I could not tell you how.

    I know their progressive theology has lost them a lot of churches, including the one in our community which is now fundamentalist, charasmatic, and reformed.

    From what I have heard they are a good group.

    What led you to move away from ABC? (Not a accusation or an opportunity to recruit you, just curious).

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  5. Oh. And I know that some of my fave preachers are disciples...like Fred Craddock

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