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When you think about the organizations and activities you participate in, what are some of the most important factors for you? For me, without a doubt, community rises to the top. This is one of the many reasons I love the church. As a child, in many ways, the church raised me. Outside of my parents and school, people at church were those that I saw the most, and they more than saw me. They taught me about faith and serving others, nurtured my interests and talents, celebrated big moments in my life, and journeyed with me through the chaos.

I have always been drawn to the hymn, "What a Friend We Have in Jesus." The three verses that are written in it provide a rich source of what God supplies to us if we are willing and ready to open ourselves up to a deep and long-standing connection with Jesus, as part of the triune God.

Here is the first verse:

Have you ever been forced to do something you didn't want to do? I think about the youth I work with who lack autonomy in so many spaces. So much of their lives is not optional. Sometimes when we find ourselves in a space that is "mandatory" but not where we want to be, it is more than difficult to participate with any enthusiasm.

The world around us is both full of evidence of the joyous triumphs over the hardships of the past two-plus years, as well as the evidence of the desperate need to heal the gaping wound that continues to fester in our social structures and institutions.

We have suffered much loss of life due to the pandemic and suffer from an increasingly divisive social and political climate. And even though we are looking in the face of economic uncertainty, we can see that God has enabled many flowers to open in the desert times of life.

Fall is here and full schedules are back. I don't know about you, but sometimes summer, even though I'm no longer in school, feels like a sabbath from overscheduling. The sun is out and so are we, taking time to vacation, to play, and to rest. Then fall hits and school and regular programming restarts.

I know that in Christianity, and amongst the people who call themselves believers in God, it is frowned upon to love anyone or anything more than God, including somebody that God created for us to love. Because we remember Mark 28b-30 NRSV, "Which commandment is the first of all?" Jesus answered, "The first is, 'Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.'"

When I was an undergraduate student at Bowling Green State University, I had one of the coolest jobs on campus! I worked as a student leadership assistant for the Center of Leadership, creating and facilitating leadership workshops and retreats for student organizations. I learned so much from this job, made friendships that continue to this day, and had unique opportunities because of that role.

How are you feeling about your life? Have you found yourself on a path in your faith journey that you felt was going along fine only to have a set of difficult circumstances come in and devastate you, someone you love, or someone close to you?

When we are faced with harsh circumstances we may question whether we are living the way God wants us to live and wrongly believe that the harsh circumstances are evidence that God is not happy with us. We may falsely believe that bad things happen to bad people, and good things happen to good people.

Throughout my life, I have been fortunate enough to have some truly incredible teachers. With their help, I've grown in the classroom and as a person. One teacher I will never forget is the professor who taught Histories of Queer Activism when I was a college student at Bowling Green State University. At some point during that semester she shared that from a young age she had sensed a call to serve as a pastor, but as a young adult in the 80s and 90s didn't believe a church would hire her as an out lesbian. When she shared this sense of call it made so much sense.

What is the best thing that you have read in the Bible? Was it "God is love?" (1 John 4:16) or "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in times of trouble?" (Psalm 46:1), or my personal favorite, "So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see everything has become new?" (2 Corinthians 5:17)