Twenty years ago today I was ordained. So, I was inspired to take a couple minutes and write a thing:
It still fits
This robe, this stole
This life
Twenty years today
Since the day I said, “I will, and I ask the Lord to help and guide me.”
Twenty years
Of bedsides
And baptisms
Of looking for the right scripture
Of sleepless Saturday nights
And Sunday afternoon naps
Twenty years
Of preparing the Table
Smoothing the fine linen
Updating the church records
Standing by the graveside with the wind whipping my hair
Wondering if the pages of my sermon will fly away
Twenty years
Of little hands giving me pictures they colored during worship
Of seeing the dairy farmer dozing during my sermon
Of making sure the lights are all turned off before I lock up the church door.
Twenty years
Of strange tasks that were never on the letter of call
But Here I am, Send me
To pick up the sticks in the cemetery after the windstorm
To find someone to remove the dead deer from the church ditch
To decide if twenty below zero is too cold to have worship or not
Twenty years
How do you measure so much joy (and not a small amount of pain)?
How do you measure a life like this?
What is there to say
Except, I’m thankful.
I’m thankful it still fits.
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