The Ability to Change

I have worked at pastor duties at several churches. My first experience moved me across the border to the North Shore of Lake Huron. For almost five years tried to teach and learn to live with fellow Christians in Canada in the last decade of the 20th century. I learned cribbage and knitting and cross country skiing. I changed the way I said certain words and was welcomed into the homes of many great people. Five years represented 20% of my life. 

I married at 30 and moved to the UP of Michigan into a college town. I worked with teens and kids born in the 80s.  I learned to eat pasties, cross the Mackinac Bridge, swim in Lake Superior  and shovel lots of snow. We also became homeowners and parents in the UP. Christians with young kids made up our network.   I lost two jobs in Sault Ste. Marie. I resigned one and was laid off from another. Unemployment checks entered my vocabulary. 

At the edge of the 21st century, we moved to the LP of Michigan. I morphed to Mr. Mom, volunteered at a church in the Elk Capitol of Michigan and started distance education to deepen computer skills. Three years later God reeled me back in. I grew to love the Conservative Congregational Christian Conference. I learned about dog sledding, skijouring, school boards, substitute teaching, Christian Drama and Camp Barakel. By the time we moved on, 15 years of my life had been invested in MI, 33% of my life.

Does there come a point when the bumps, morphs and  of life render one brittle and challenged when trying to fit in to a new reality? For the last three years I have lived in upstate NY, trying to love my native Michigan wife and children, trying to become my father's son again, trying to walk as my younger brother's friend after 21 years away, almost 50% of my life. I'm also trying to understand, love and guide a Wesleyan group of believers in the Finger Lakes region. Most all are farther down the road in life experience. Can I make these changes and earn a living and keep up with my DNA matched teens? Not without help.