Summer Reflection: Gettin' sick of sayin' good-bye.

We often met at The Center for Changing Lives in Minneapolis.  Part of the
sign was captured above our heads.  How appropriate for this group!
Tomorrow is my last day of Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) internship.  Since mid-May I've been serving The Recovery Church and Mounds Park United Methodist, both in St. Paul.

CPE is a funny thing... In my case, I worked in addiction and recovery ministries.  Then in addition, I spent 8 hours per week doing interpersonal processing with a supervisor and 8 other colleagues who were placed at other community-based settings--refuge services, homeless shelter, hospice care, inner-city programming for kids, etc....











Recovery coin that was presented
to me and my aunt's ring.  Both important
to me this summer.
One goal of interpersonal processing is to predict what it would be like to work as colleagues in the future.  And then we help each other work out our kinks.  We ask each other really hard questions about why we do what we do.  We tell each other really hard stuff, like "When you say/do that, this is how I internally react."  I was curious about some things about myself and got answers.  Plus, I had the best CPE group ever--some of the finest people I know, for real. 



My work in addiction and recovery was crazy and amazing.  People in recovery taught me to trust again... like really trust, like the 'fully surrender' kind of trust.  With all the ways religion can be used to hurt people, I saw the amazing power of religion for healing and hope this summer.  Faith has such power in it.
















Recovery Church nametag
I'm saying my final good-byes this week, and after being at three sites over the last year, I'm getting really sick of good-byes.  I have found so many people I want to do ministry with--smart people, passionate people, funny people, creative people, just down right amazing people.  I have been forever changed over and over and over again.  They are a part of me as I go into another new setting in just two days. 

Grateful, just really grateful. 




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