The Lord now chose seventy-two other disciples and sent them ahead in pairs to all the towns and places he planned to visit. ~Luke 10:1
Once again, I am going to attempt writing a new
blog post since I have been finding myself at the point that I am not able to
complete a post once I start writing. However, this is one thing that had been
at the forefront of various conversations and being realized. I realized that
the decision to enter into ministry was not an easy decision to make and one of
the things that I had to consider was that I would be leaving many
relationships. The other options that I considered were options that would lead
me to being around many people my age and working with them as a team however,
the option to enter into ministry that I am in now, was not that way.
In college, I had numerous relationships and
groups to interact with. I was in apart of a service sorority, a member of the
leadership team with InterVarsity, attended many conferences and events, and the
list goes on. In college, it seemed to me that relationships came easy and I
never had to work at building relationship since I can get along with just
about anyone.
One of the conferences that I attended during my
senior year of college was InterVarsity’s Greek Conference and I went through
the influence track, which was for seniors that were getting ready to graduate.
During that track, they had some recent graduates talk about their transition
after graduating yet it seemed like a majority of them were in graduate school
so they were still connected with people around their age. However, this was
one thing that kept coming up during that weekend and a concern for many of us
that were getting ready to graduate. How would we build relationships? Where
would we go to church? What did post college life look like? Would we be
lonely? And the questions just kept coming.
Entering into ministry, I knew that it wouldn’t
be the easiest of paths to enter into yet for the first 2 months of being in
Texas, things have been going well until this past weekend when it dawned on me
that I am not connected. I love the people I work with and the interactions
that I have at work but I realize that right now, that’s the only interaction
with people that I have. I have realized that I need to get connected in a
church and engage in relationships with others around my age. I am realizing
that I am realizing that I may have people around me but in the end, once I
leave work every day, I find myself alone and starting to deal with the effects
of loneliness, especially as the holiday season is approaching. It’s hard to
describe what I am talking about but it seems to me that some of my other US-2
and Mission Intern friends are dealing with the same thing. So, what’s to come and
where will things take me?
I am now realizing why God sent the disciples and
others out in pairs. He didn’t intend on us being alone and I trust and believe
that the connections will be made somewhere so that I don’t look back and
realize what I had and what it is that I no longer have. This is a new journey
and a time for growth. Ministry was never meant to be easy and leaving
everything that I ever knew and all of the relationships and interactions that
I had was not easy. I went from having people to hang out with most of the time
to now, not doing much since I don’t want to do things alone.
So, if you are reading this, I ask that you pray
for strength and for relationships to be formed, both those that have already
started and those that may not be present at the moment. I pray that God
continues working in Dallas and through the organization that I am partnering
with and that God blesses us all abundantly and meets all of our needs.
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