Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

As I send out prayers for the Middlers awaiting internship assignment and the Seniors awaiting synodical assignments, I am noting the flux in my own community here in Montana and the transient nature of internship. There are interim pastors coming and going from four ELCA churches and the staff is changing around at the care facility I work for.

I have the illusion that once I am on first call, life will calm down and I will, at last, have a consistent community. But this is merely a myth I tell myself to deal with all the change in my own life. I've moved every year for the past 7 years and sometimes twice a year if summer happened to be happening elsewhere! I long to have a community that stays put around me and I with it instead of this ongoing change.

I know many other interns and I anxiously await the time when we can hug one another again and walk down to Jimmy's for a pitcher of Linney's. Skype and phone calls just aren't the same. And then I start to think how quickly this year has gone by and how quickly our final senior year will go by and my breath catches. That's barely any time at all before we all  begin to depart for our first calls and lives outside of the seminary.

What do we do with all this change?

Perhaps the key is to begin looking at life moment by moment and enjoying those who are around you in that moment. There is no guarantee that any of us will be around tomorrow or next month or next year.

And if Vitor were here, he'd offer an eschatological remark about bringing about the kingdom. It's us. It's now. Seize the day. The day is all we've got.