Lord, grant me patience, but please hurry!

Learning to live in new ways

One of the most unexpected effects of my ministry transition has been the level of uncertainty which has arisen in my life. For the last two decades of chaplaincy and parish ministry them has been a certain amount of predictability.

Weeks and months progressed in a relatively straightforward manor. Sunday services and monthly drill weekends came up on my calendar at the same time every month. Church holidays and regular activities caused my year to adhere to a fairly standard pattern.

Impatience with uncertainty

All of that has changed. I am in a new field and am still trying to get the hang of life as a grad student. The future has never been more opaque for me than it is at the moment. Although I have a vague sense of how my educational process is supposed to go, the reality is I have no idea where my new career will take me. the sorts of counseling I might be doing, or even what next year’s field education experience might look like. 

Learning to live with uncertainty is easier said than done. Patience is something that I want for others more than I want for myself.

Truth be told, I hate waiting, and I hate uncertainty. Trusting in God’s timing is proving harder than it looks. Although we are only six into the semester, it already turns out that patience is going to be one of the most important things for me to learn