The New Kid

One of the things which happened without much fanfare when I retired was the creation of a new community.  When I was the pastor of churches, there was always a community around me.  As I moved into a new appointment, everyone was new but I knew that eventually those around me would become my people and I would become a part of their community.  The church provides many blessings for its spiritual leaders, but a ready made community is indeed one of the special ones. 

 

In retirement it was different.  Here on the farm and in the small one caution light town which stands on the edge of it, there was no ready made community eager to receive me.  Whenever I introduced myself, it was always as one who married a hometown girl and whose in-laws lived down the road.  Small towns have a way of claiming their own as the ones who were born and raised within its influence and so I was an outsider as I suppose I will always be. 

 

But, God did have a way of bringing people into my life who were certainly different from those who filled the community of churches I served.  Our connection had nothing to do with my being a preacher, although to some I am known as such, but as one who came and started to experience some of the things common to most folks around here.  Being the greenhorn farmer, my first friends were the helpers who got me started on the journey lived day by day on the farm.  It is a more diverse community than the one I found in the church.  There is more grime and sweat in it, more color in it, and more awareness that life is finally dependent on the creation and, therefore, the Creator.  I am grateful for each one of them for the way they have become people who know me and accept me as the new kid on the farm.