I've moved to Miami and am gearing up for the school year as a campus minister. It's a crazy cool job, and I don't really know how I got here. I mean, I remember interviewing and all, but I always thought I'd end up in social justice work. Instead, I'm attending to the social needs and spiritual development of college students, who are always in a time of transition and discovery. And who are more often than not neglected and even ignored by the church despite its grumblings about there being no young people in church.
I suppose it's a different kind of mission and advocacy. I get to preach every week to college kids trying to figure out who they are and how to live in the world. I get to help them discern their paths and talk about what it really means to follow Jesus in our interactions with God and others. I'm getting to know my ecumenical colleagues. I painted my office two shades of aqua, and I'm planning all the cool decorating improvements I can make to make the place more comfortable and aesthetically appealing to students. I'm ordering slick postcards and fun coasters to advertise on campus. And I get to play games and hang out for my job.
But although it's exciting and fun, it's still an adjustment. 6 years ago I lived and worked in a shelter for homeless families. Then I moved to Atlanta and in seminary we talked a lot about living the gospel and being in community. And now I live in the fancy part of the city that looks like a resort, and my house that's too big for me has an alarm and lawn service. And I'm probably going to get an iphone so I can keep up with my students online and so I can find my way around the city.
But I'm planning our first international mission trip. I'm working on pairing us up with a local agency so students can build relationships and learn about local issues that affect the way that people here live. And I plan to do a book study on one of Shane Claiborne's books, and a study series from Sojourner's. Hopefully, I can introduce a desire for social justice and understanding others into the lives and spiritual vocabularies of the students.
I know this is the right place to be, and I am totally stoked. I spent the last two years at a children's hospital, wondering every day if I'd be with a family when their child died. I was, 36 times. I loved being there, and it was an amazing privilege to be with people at the most tender times of their lives. I would love to do that work again some day, just as I'd love to work again with people confronting housing, poverty and other justice issues. But it was heavy. It was hard. I'm glad I did it and I wouldn't relinquish a day of it, but I am glad to be doing something different and more upbeat. This is a challenge, too, in different ways. And maybe one day I'll feel as cynical and frustrated about this as the campus ministry veterans I met at a conference recently. If that starts to happen, I hope I'll notice and be excited to move to a new adventure, perhaps one in social justice or pediatric chaplaincy. (And if I don't notice, you hereby have permission to point it out to me.) I imagine that I'll spend my life moving from one project to another every few years, as I already have. That itinerant system is in my blood.
Right now, I'm glad to be focused on having lunch with board members and students, redoing the prayer room, planning a leadership retreat, buying new couches, and plotting out sermons for the fall.
Rock on.
