This week, she will return from her honeymoon and travel 3 hours away from me to make her new home with her new husband and join him as youth pastor at a church on the coast.
I am beyond excited for her. Marriage has been the biggest blessing in my life. Ministry has been another huge blessing for me.
Am I sad? Absolutely.
This move means that she will be 3 hours away. This move means we will no longer see each other at school. This move means that the girl in my life who has become my best friend and the man who has become my husband's closest friend is gone.
Why 3 hours away? Because they are youth pastors. And the coast is where God has called them. Don't get me wrong... I am excited for them. Jeff is a great youth pastor. And they have a great thing going on. But in my selfishness I hate that they are so far away. Jenny has never been this far away. She has always been just a small drive away.
This is not the first person in my life who has moved far away because of ministry. I am finding that this happens all the time in ministry. My first youth pastor is now a missionary in Germany. A friend of ours is now in Portland working as a children's pastor. Someday we will be called somewhere else too.
I guess this is just the cost of ministry.
Sometimes I wonder what life would be like if I had a normal job. If my friends had a normal job. We could raise our babies together, go on double dates, go to church together... But that isn't what I was put on earth to do. Ministry is what I am meant to do. And so I will do it. I will sacrifice because Christ first sacrificed for me. I will put effort into keeping a close relationship with Jenny and Jeff with an understanding that they are where God wants them and Daimian and I are where God wants us.
Sometimes the cost of ministry is tough. But it is something I am willing to pay.
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