By Ed Thompson

The summer after my first year in seminary, I had the opportunity to do an internship at the Winter Park Presbyterian Church in Winter Park, Florida. Although I may well have been the last person in my class to line up a job for the summer, I probably ended up having the best experience of any of my classmates. In many ways, it was amazing. I learned a lot. I had some great role models. I made some great friends.

It was not without its drawbacks, however. While it rained almost every afternoon about 4 p.m. for maybe 20-30 minutes, enough to cool things off and to make outdoor evening activities bearable, let me just say it gets hot in Florida in the summer. I don’t like hot. Not the sauce on my chicken wings, not the salsa at Mexican restaurants, and certainly not in terms of the temperature. (As someone once said, “I play golf in the 70s. If it gets any hotter, I stay home.”) This was back in the day when air conditioning in cars was still somewhat of a luxury, more of an exotic option rather than standard equipment as it is now. My car did not have air conditioning. Going to lunch was almost unbearable.

I also ended up doing a lot of youth work that summer. To their credit, the Winter Park Presbyterian Church provided a lot of opportunities for the youth of the church while school was out. They had Vacation Bible School. They sent a Youth Mission Trip to West Virginia to work with Bob and Beth Bondurant at Upper Glade. Since I didn’t get to go, that meant I had to learn to drive the church bus to take the remaining members of the youth group out to a nearby migrant camp while the others were gone. We did a weekly program for the kids of the migrant workers, playing games, singing songs, and doing some Bible lessons with and for them. That’s when I first learned to drive a stick, on a church bus on the streets of Winter Park, Florida. (Not something I can recommend.) A saving grace was that the church’s associate pastor had already mashed in the roof of the bus a week before he left for West Virginia.

They also had evening programs for their youth four nights a week, which was one big reason they needed to get a summer intern. Monday night was an open house for kids at the “cottage,” a double-wide trailer they had set up for their youth ministry. Tuesday night was for Junior Highs. Wednesday night was for Senior Highs. Thursday night was for the college age group. It seems like we often had retreats or special events on Friday nights and sometimes on Saturday nights, as well.

I can do youth ministry. I don’t necessarily like youth ministry. Nor, I will admit, do I do it well. I still thank God for Ginny Ward Holderness. One of her then-recently published books saved my sanity and may well have saved my soul that summer.

After maybe the first two weeks of my 10-week internship, the excitement had worn off. I was ready to go back to seminary. Richmond, Virginia may or may not have had cooler temperatures than Winter Park, Florida that summer. In my mind, however, almost any place this side of hell had to have cooler weather than Winter Park, Florida in July. I missed my friends. I did not appreciate or enjoy the challenge of coming up with almost daily youth group lessons. And it was not that I had to do it all by myself. Our adult volunteers were great, deeply committed Christians with a great deal of wisdom. One of them taught me a lesson that still sticks with me.

It happened on one of the Senior High nights. We met at the home of somebody in the church that had a swimming pool. (Not that that necessarily narrows it down. It was a pretty large congregation with many affluent members.) After maybe giving them a half hour to play in the water, we got the kids out for snacks, and then went inside for a short devotion. One of the adults was mainly talking to the seniors in the group. He was telling them that while they were probably already looking forward to graduation and going to college or getting a job next year, he cautioned them, “Don’t wish your life away.” You might be looking forward to the future, but recognize the good things that are happening to you each day. If you look around, you will see God at work in your life.

His message hit me like a ton of bricks. I was wishing my life away. There were good things happening in my life, happening all around me. Yet I was mainly thinking about getting out of there and being some place where it was not so dang hot.

That message came back to me as I was thinking about selling the office. In some ways, I find myself wishing it was mid-November. By then, the staff will have made the transition to working from home. All the kinks will have been worked out. The headaches that are sure to come in the next 2-3 months will all be over. The reality is that there will be other things that will give me a headache in November and in the months to come. The reality is that there will also be signs of grace, things of beauty, occasions for joy as we make this transition. God will be there with me and with us in this transition.

I may lose my temper – although hopefully I will not lose my religion. There may be events that will be more than enough to make a preacher swear. (Or at least enough to make me swear.) But I know in the end it will all work out. I know in the end it will all be good. I know we can make it work, and I know in the end this presbytery will be well served by this transition.

To be honest, I’m not looking forward to the next 6-8 weeks. But I know God will be with us throughout this time and throughout this transition, and I’m not going to wish my life away again. I promise to do my best to keep my eyes open and see God at work around me and in me and hopefully through me as we live into these upcoming changes.