I have decided I have a reason to write again, but I am also aware that it has been a year and a half since I have done so, thus some explanation maybe helpful. This is not to say that I have been writing; but rather, that I have not published anything. We don’t think about it much, but publishing is a thing. . . you have to have something to say and a reason to say it publicly. Writing has always been a prayer for me – in fact it is probably my most powerful prayer – not because of what others get out of it, but because of what I do.
For the past year and a half, I have been in the midst of an unfolding journey. Perhaps it is better to say that this has been the case for all of my life, but this past year and a half has been especially profound.
I became very intentional about bringing my ministerial experience and professional experience together. I hired a coach. I met with a great number of people. I studied. I read. I applied. I waited. I was rejected. I was accepted.
The result is exactly what I hoped for in a package I least expected. I am now a Postulant with the Episcopal Diocese of Texas studying to be a bivocational Episcopal priest, which means I have a career. I serve as the Verger at Holy Family Episcopal Church in Houston. I have found a home in the Episcopal tradition as it provides me with access to the sacramental life I missed so dearly. This life reminds me to see past the surface to the deeper realities that surface contains.
This brings me to the next evolution as I now serve at Prison Entrepreneurship Program. Essentially, we teach entrepreneurship as a vehicle for transformation. Though many see it as a business course, participants would tell you it is much more about character. The program is driven by volunteers who work in and outside of prison. Unintentionally, they created a community. It is this community which has given me a reason to write again. There is a story to be told, and while I am not sure this is the best medium to use for me to tell this story, it gives me a reason to intentionally reflect on what is happening and to pay attention to the stories that need amplification – not so much for the reader but so that I may more deeply impacted by them. I tell my coworkers that miracles happen around us so often that we begin to think that they are common, when in fact, they are miracles. People find belonging. The reconnect with families. They earn a fresh new start. They reconcile. Their reconciliation is accepted. They experience mercy and they live with hope when both should have been beaten out of them long ago.
This is a reason to write – and a reason to share.