It's a weird jellyfish sort of feeling...

Well, here I am in St. Petersburg. I got here about 5 PM and enjoyed a really great family spaghetti dinner in a wonderful home. When you walk into this place, you know a family lives here. Some people only have houses. Some people have homes. This is a home.

I'm not quite sure what to write tonight. It's such a change. A new town, new people, new surroundings, a new feel.

I guess the best thing to say is this. It is a time of new beginnings. But at the same time it is a returning...a return to ministry, a return to being around other ministers, with people who can relate to some of the things I feel, who can relate to ideas I might have concerning ministry, and who have ideas and visions of ministry that I can relate to but also be challenged by and ultimately learn and grow from.

I am excited, yet reticent at the same time.

I am excited because I am back in the city. As I drove through Tampa this afternoon, I got the old familiar chill of coming into a new city, full of new thoughts, hopes, and personal expectations for what the future might hold. As I crossed over the bay on I-275, I looked out over the water and thought about how much I missed being near water, how great it is to live in a community near salt water, affected by the tides, and smelling of ocean air. As I drove into St. Petersburg proper, I noticed the stores and houses in the area, wondering which places might be places I might be shopping at, going to, and having as a part of my personal environment.

But I am also reticent. A little touch of anxious excitement, you might say. I am with people who I had never laid eyes on until only a few hours ago. But we know a number of the same people and I have never felt so connected to my denomination and to the Kingdom of God as I do tonight. It is a good feeling.

It's a weird jellyfish sort of feeling. Like the jellyfish pictured above, I am floating in and supported by the ocean of God's providence and care. I am a transient being caught in the current of God's heart. I am a marine organism, relying on the wind and waves of God's care to deliver me wherever God wills.

Here I am, Lord...

Now what?