Happy Trails

A quick news update -- no news whatsoever on the house. People are still coming by, but nothing beyond that. Not sure what we need to do next, or even if there's anything we can do, but I'm hoping our realtor will be able to shed some light on the situation.

Found out a little more about those full-time IRS positions I didn't get. Turns out one of the people who did get one of the jobs was . . . my boss. Seems they were hiring from a whole 'nother level of experience all along, and three seasons in, I'm just not there yet. Emphasis on the yet.

Things continue to be interesting at work. A half-dozen or so of the most senior members of our crew were sent off to Washington DC last week for training sessions by Homeland Security experts on false identity documents. Then they will come teach the rest of us what they learned, and we will use that information in the stepped-up fight against document and identity fraud that our department is in the middle of. Given all the extra time and training we're dealing with, it looks like I'll be working here for quite a while yet this season, which is good news indeed.

And lastly, I want to take a moment to honor Rev. Lou Snead, who preached his last sermon yesterday morning as pastor of Faith Presbyterian Church here in Austin. He and his lovely wife Michelle are embarking on the adventure of retirement, with lots of travel and family and grandkid-watching and gardening on the agenda. Lou was pastor at Faith for 17 years, and I have never seen a better fit between minister and congregation. As Lou said at the retirement party we threw for him on Saturday, "I would have been here longer if I had gotten here sooner." Lou is one of the finest people I have ever known, a living embodiment of St. Francis of Assisi's advice to "preach the gospel at all times and when necessary, use words." Like everybody else in the Faith community, I will miss him terribly.

One of the policies of the Presbyterian Church is that, upon retirement, a pastor distance himself from his former church. This not only helps the congregation move forward, it doesn't put the next pastor in the difficult situation of having to deal with constant comparisons to the previous minister. (Some of that is going to happen anyway, of course, but trying to minimize it is a good idea.) Today, just one day removed from his last Sunday on the job, I find it very difficult to imagine a spiritual life at Faith (or anywhere else) that Lou is not smack-dab in the middle of. But I know that I, along with the rest of the Faith congregation, must find that new path, that new way to be witnesses to Christ's message in a needy world, that moves forward without our pastor of 17 years. It won't be easy, but I remain hopeful.