And so it begins...

Once I knew that I would be starting my ministry career- or more specifically my "professional" ministry career- in Louisiana, I began thinking that it might be cool to chronicle the journey.  After several people suggested the idea to me in various contexts, without any prompting on my part, I decided that perhaps it was worth doing.   I expect that this will be an easy way of both keeping friends and family updated on my new life in Glenmora, while also recording my impressions and thoughts along the way.  Who knows what I will think in five years when I look back on this (assuming that I have been faithful in posting regularly), but I would argue that the change in my own self that I will observe from some vantage point in the distance is reason enough for the undertaking.  Now about the name...  
I spent some time struggling for a unique, clever, and if possible theologically insightful name to use for the blog.   In the end I gave up on the enterprise as futile right before the name came to me, or rather was read to me, during my going away party at church.  In the midst of people's comments, and my losing battle to fight back tears, a man who has taught me a tremendous deal about ministry took the microphone and read the call narrative of the prophet Jeremiah.   He read the words as both an affirmation of my call to ministry, as well as a challenge to be a prophetic voice in the world.  A few words struck me as particularly poignant because of the way they seemed to speak to my exact situation.  After the Lord tells Jeremiah that he has been appointed as a prophet to the nations, Jeremiah responds by saying "Ah, Lord God!  Behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth."  The Lord's response comes back in the imperative: "Do not say 'I am only a youth'; for to all to whom I send you, you shall go, and whatever I command you, you shall speak.  Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, declares the Lord." 
I think that if the story ended there that would be enough.  But it didn't, for the Lord did more than simply speak reassuring words to Jeremiah.  In an act that is example parts compassion and commissioning, the Lord puts out His hand and touches Jeremiah's mouth saying:
"Behold, I have put my words in your mouth. 
See, I have set you this day over nations and over kingdoms,
to pluck up and to break down,
to destroy and to overthrow,
to build and to plant."
Now that's an ambitious agenda!  Plucking up and breaking down, destroying and overthrowing,  building and planting...  If it were Jeremiah, or in this instance myself, that was responsible for all the actions we find in Jeremiah's call narrative, then the agenda would be over-the-top to say the least.  And yet, thanks be to God, I am not the one responsible for this radical, world-changing to-do list.  It's the Lord.  It's the Lord who places Jeremiah in the position of prophet, and more importantly it's the Lord's words that do all the acting.  What an awesome reminder for me as I begin my career as a minister in Christ's church.  If the words and the actions ever become mine, then my mission is doomed to failure.  BUT, if I allow myself to simply be a conduit for the spreading of God's redemptive message, then the possibilities become endless. While I have no doubt that of my own accord I can create words that pluck up and break down, that destroy and overthrow, am I also equally aware of my own inability to build or plant with words of my own creation.  And thus, the reason for my awkwardly titled blog.  The words of Jeremiah's call narrative have become my prayer and earnest desire as I begin a life in ministry.  "May the Lord continually put His words in my mouth..."