John Shea Taggart
Dec. 23rd 2010
John Shea
July 2011
My two favorite boys
Younglife camp Rockbridge 2011
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Monday, August 8, 2011
365
August 8th, 2011 officially marks 1 year since I left my job at First Pres. It's hard to wrap my head around the fact that 365 days have come and gone since I preached my final sermon. What's even harder to wrap my head around is all the events large and small that have happened since then. The first thing I did after leaving my job was spend a week in Ocean City with my family...I couldn't have asked for a better way to start this new phase of my life. But quickly the week ended and I was back in Florida with absolutely no clue what to do! A friend let me jump in on the beginnings of his new insurance company...I know what you're thinking, "Maura working in insurance?" Hence why it only lasted about 2 months. So about mid Oct. I found myself searching again. And I found what I thought was going to be the beginning of a new career teaching at a private school for kids on the Autism Spectrum. 5 months later I was let go (long story). Needless to say the first 6 months of this "new phase" of life was frustrating, confusing, and pretty lonely. And to top it off I had no clue where to go to church. Searching for a new church has been the most frustrating part of it all. And unfortunately I haven't really figured that part out yet either.
However frustrating the past 365 days have been there have been some unbelievable blessings and surprises. First being my second nephew was born on Dec 23rd, and he is just the best kid! So I am now the proud aunt of the 2 best boys in the world! Ok I know I am a little biased :) Not only that but my involvement with Younglife continued and we had a great year that ended with my finally going to Camp this summer! An incredible week! I have a great job, and I get to work with some pretty great people, including one of my oldest friends in the world! And out of this job I have made some great new friendships that I am beyond grateful for.
Over this past year I have gone through every emotion I could have ever imagined and I have constantly been faced with the question of now what? Now what am I going to do with my life? What will my career be? I am someone who likes clear definitions and for the past 6 years my life and a clear definition, I was a youth pastor! Its all I knew and its all I really wanted to know. So when it ended I was devastated to learn I had no title, no definition, no purpose. Or so I thought.
The greatest lesson I have learned over the last 365 days is I can try as hard as I want to gain a title or to define my life but at the end of the day regardless of my "title" my job, my career, regardless of the pressure I feel by the world to know exactly what I want to do with my life, in the end the only thing that matters, the only definition that matters is I am a follower of Jesus Christ. That's it...end of sentence...end of exhausting search for significance! At the end of the day my faith in Christ is what drives me to be content in where I am in my life right now because I know I am right where he wants me to be, at least for the time being. Although my walk with the Lord has been very up and down this past year, and majority of the time I have felt that He was no where to be found, thankfully He hasn't gone anywhere but before me to show me He's got it all under control.
To be honest I am still dealing with a lot of what this past year has fed me and some days are great while others are really difficult. Sometimes I, to quote a friend of mine "I am selling myself short" due to a lack of confidence. Its in those moments when the people who care about me help me come back to reality and the reality is, I am blessed because He has been so faithful. He has never left me. That His call on my life to minister to people was not based on a job or a paycheck or a youth group...that the relationships I have and continue to have with kids are well beyond those things. They simply exist because He allows them to. And for that I will always be thankful, humbled, and grateful for.
~His Grace is Sufficient~
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
2 Corinthians 12:9-10
However frustrating the past 365 days have been there have been some unbelievable blessings and surprises. First being my second nephew was born on Dec 23rd, and he is just the best kid! So I am now the proud aunt of the 2 best boys in the world! Ok I know I am a little biased :) Not only that but my involvement with Younglife continued and we had a great year that ended with my finally going to Camp this summer! An incredible week! I have a great job, and I get to work with some pretty great people, including one of my oldest friends in the world! And out of this job I have made some great new friendships that I am beyond grateful for.
Over this past year I have gone through every emotion I could have ever imagined and I have constantly been faced with the question of now what? Now what am I going to do with my life? What will my career be? I am someone who likes clear definitions and for the past 6 years my life and a clear definition, I was a youth pastor! Its all I knew and its all I really wanted to know. So when it ended I was devastated to learn I had no title, no definition, no purpose. Or so I thought.
The greatest lesson I have learned over the last 365 days is I can try as hard as I want to gain a title or to define my life but at the end of the day regardless of my "title" my job, my career, regardless of the pressure I feel by the world to know exactly what I want to do with my life, in the end the only thing that matters, the only definition that matters is I am a follower of Jesus Christ. That's it...end of sentence...end of exhausting search for significance! At the end of the day my faith in Christ is what drives me to be content in where I am in my life right now because I know I am right where he wants me to be, at least for the time being. Although my walk with the Lord has been very up and down this past year, and majority of the time I have felt that He was no where to be found, thankfully He hasn't gone anywhere but before me to show me He's got it all under control.
To be honest I am still dealing with a lot of what this past year has fed me and some days are great while others are really difficult. Sometimes I, to quote a friend of mine "I am selling myself short" due to a lack of confidence. Its in those moments when the people who care about me help me come back to reality and the reality is, I am blessed because He has been so faithful. He has never left me. That His call on my life to minister to people was not based on a job or a paycheck or a youth group...that the relationships I have and continue to have with kids are well beyond those things. They simply exist because He allows them to. And for that I will always be thankful, humbled, and grateful for.
~His Grace is Sufficient~
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
2 Corinthians 12:9-10
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