Endings and Beginnings

Yesterday we announced to the church via email that I will be leaving my position at Gender Road at the end of June.  I made this decision two months ago and am happy in many ways that the news is OUT that I am leaving.  I shared it with my wonderful Bible study yesterday and there were the reactions that I will be missed and that they understand.  What I have realized is that I am tired of working weekends after thirty years in ministry. 

So, I am getting ready for this ending again - retiring a second time.  When I retired from full time ministry seven years ago I felt like I was walking off a cliff because I did not know what the future would bring.  It took a while to put together my post retirement life as I found myself preaching around the state, doing volunteer work and continuing as a spiritual director.   Then, after Chuck died, there were even more hours to fill and I found pickleball and the job at Gender Road. 

Now I will be ending this work and beginning again with something new.  Now I am not sure in what ways I will fill the hours that I currently spend working.  Maybe more reading, exercise, writing?  I really do not know.  I know about the ending - I just don't really know what the beginning will be.

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What I have been told by those closest to me recently is that I am "too busy."  I am taking that to heart . 

I believe I am creating space for a new thing that God has for me to do.  And that space necessitates emptiness for a while.

Here is a prayer that seems helpful from Maxine Shonk

May God come to fill your EMPTINESS and the poaces that yearn for meaning and value.

May you open your heart to the God who created you with unconditional love and 

breathed divine purpose into your being, filling you with treasure beyond measure.

May you find this gifting God waiting and yearning for you in your empty places.

May the God of FULLNESS bless you.