It felt like we lived a whole life this last weekend. From highest highs to lowest lows, we survived but I'm honestly not totally sure how. Well... I do know how. It is one of the greatest gifts of my life to have people around to throw out a life preserver when drowning seems inevitable.

Saturday, Sunday, Monday... Life was on full display. In all it's horrible beauty. By yesterday afternoon, the sun was shining, a breeze blowing, I could breathe again, and I looked up from a conversation with a friend to realize that the storm had passed.

“We stop, whether by choice or through circumstance . . . We wait for our souls to catch up with our bodies.” -Eugene Peterson

That was me last night.

This day has been a Tuesday. Meetings and phone calls and the mundane things of life. But in the middle of the afternoon I got an email that let me know that my application for ordination had been approved. And just like that, nearly eight years of work came to a conclusion. Maybe not the one I would have first thought, or dreamed of, or even thought I wanted. But it is done. My soul caught up with my body.

And now I move forward, blessed beyond belief by the growing community of faith that surrounds me, thankful beyond measure for the legacy of faith that raised me to be who I am, scared beyond words by the enormity of the tasks that lie ahead, and firmly standing in the center of this surprisingly, beautifully, awe-fully wonderful life.

A friend posted a quote from a book she was reading this morning, and I had no clue just how applicable it would be by this evening. Emily P. Freeman, in her book "How to Walk into a Room." said this about the journey of astronauts:

"Just because re-entry is difficult doesn’t mean they’re doing it wrong. On the contrary, that bumpy, fiery ride is not a mistake. It’s the actual way home.”

I feel that tonight. This weekend was reentry, I guess. It was bumpy and fiery and felt all wrong. But here I am... having found it to be the way home.

I love you, friends.

And I am oh so thankful to see you here on this side of the trip.

For reference because I didn’t think about the questions people would have, information about this group that has accepted me and affirmed my call to ministry through the process of ordination can be found at opentable.network