I distinctly remember in high school when I created one of those Geocities accounts, and dove head first in to something they were calling a web log, or a blog. I for one am mercifully grateful that you can’t find Geocities any more, because I think that original J-Blog was an emo kids’s delight, where I took to the internet to complain about the typical teenage experience. I don’t really want to relive those days.
Through the years, the J-Blog has come and gone as I’ve needed it, and as I’ve had interest. Sometimes it was about ministry work, being a youth pastor and worship leader and things like that. Sometimes it was about cycling and living life out doors. Sometimes it was just an unabashed Penguins fan page. The most important thing for the J-Blog was that it was where I got to write, at least until I got so busy that I couldn’t keep up with it any more.
The last few months have been one of those seasons. In July, I made a transition from the Youth Ministry job I held for 13 years to step out and be the pastor of Laboratory Presbyterian Church in Washington Pa. I am told that a pastoral transition is difficult under the best of circumstances, that such transitions can be a melting pot of emotions. Sad to be leaving the ministry that you called home for so long, married together with the excitement of starting something new. To be sure, I felt all of those emotions and so many more. But on top of all that crazy emotion, there was a global enemy.
Yep. COVID sucks.
So in addition to trying to find my footing preaching every single week, trying to make sense of the vocation of being a head pastor, trying to get to know everyone in my congregation, I was dealing with mask mandates and shut downs and vaccines and all that goes with this global pandemic. Somehow, we also managed to make this pandemic a political issue, so I also had to wade through waters where everyone’s emotional investment was dialed up to 11.
Admittedly, that didn’t leave much time for writing.
That said, it seems like the tide is shifting a little bit, doesn’t it? More and more folks are getting vaccinated. The CDC says that those who have the vaccine are at a very low risk for catching or transmitting the virus (with the obvious exception of the Yankees, who I believe at this point must have some sort of hex on them to keep them from winning anything at all…) We’re trying our hardest to get back to something looking like normal, which I will have some thoughts on later.
Through it all, I’ve felt this odd disruption to my Spirit. I don’t exactly know how to name it, but disruption seems about right. It’s not all bad, and it’s not all good. It’s just all…different. Part of my searching and inventory of what’s going on has been that there were deeply held practices that I had let go of for one reason or another in the season of transition, and it was time to start reintroducing them back in to my routines of life. All of which is to say, welcome to J-Blog 4.0!
I had a professor in seminary who turned me on to a question that has been a driving force in my ministry. He used to ask us all the time, “What is Jesus up to in your life, and how can you get in on it?” This question is so rich to me, that my students in my previous youth group got sick of me asking all the time. It implies that Jesus is up to something. If we believe in a resurrected Jesus, who is alive and well, ascended and active in the world, then for sure we ought to be able to see Jesus at work in the world. Right there with that certainty is the knowledge that Jesus is endlessly inviting us to be a part of his Kingdom. We are endlessly being invited to participate in building something so much bigger and better than the lowercase kingdoms that we build for ourselves. What is Jesus up to in your life, and how can you get in on it? What a tremendous question!
And so I want that tremendous question to be the beating heart of J-Blog 4.0. I want that question to be at the core of every post, where we see Jesus at work in the world, and how we can get in on that action. To do that, we have to be paying attention everywhere. We need to pay attention to the culture around us, we need to pay attention to the work-a-day life, we need to pay attention to our selves, we need to pay attention to our politics and disputes. But it’s not enough to pay attention either. We need to act. We need to not just notice our brothers and sisters in need, but actively help them out. We need to not just notice the ways our world is broken, but work with Jesus to repair it. We need to not just see where God is in the world, but participate in building a new world with him.
And, because I’m still me, we need to have fun along the way.
So welcome back to the J-Blog. Of course I encourage conversation and communication, so jump in on the comments, share this around on Facebook, or Twitter, or Snap it, or whatever you kids are doing. (Side note: Did you know that people of my generation are called Geriatric Millennials now? I both love and hate this. Now get off my lawn!) For starters today, let’s answer a question together: What is Jesus up to in your life, and how can you get in on it?
Grace and peace,
J