Beginning in the middle

Welcome to what will likely be "random thoughts along one servant's path." We'll see... I set this blog up a month and a half ago, fully planning to get into a writing pattern before Grant (my husband) and I began our new call as co-pastors of Christ the King Lutheran Church. So much for a good idea. We did manage to get a congregational blog up and running while we work on getting the church's website completely overhauled. You can find that blog at Rooted. We're using it to post events and reminders as well as some thoughts from the pastors' seats. In the middle of this crazy economy, we are feeling the pinch. Having left two full-time calls in Phoenix (and hence 2 full-time Phoenix incomes) to take a shared call in Montana, we have cut our income by more than half. It would be an adventure in simple (okay, frugal) living if we'd sold our house in Phoenix before we left. But we didn't. So now we have college-town sized rent plus a mortgage. We are "working members" at the very groovy Bozeman Community Food Co-Op. And I am selling shoes at the mall. It is an interesting thing to be back in the world of retail. I covered part of a shift this morning because someone called in sick, and the mall is S..L..O..W... Granted, it's a weekday, but still. And most of the employees are college students. It feels strange to be low person on the totem pole. I am accustomed to knowing what's going on and how things should happen. I am used to having questions asked of me and having most of the answers. Now I am learning, again, (still?) to ask a lot of questions. I also have renewed appreciation for all the folks for whom hourly wages are the only wages, and who work much harder than I do. This blog is beginning in the middle of what has already become a very busy pattern of life. I pray for the wisdom and gumption to give it the structure I thrive on and the rest I need.