OPENING
There are moments in life when the air goes still. You look up from your routine, your deadlines, your well-intentioned plans, and you realize you have drifted farther from shore than you meant to. Not lost, exactly, but suspended. Waiting. Listening. Catching your breath.
Over the past few weeks, I found myself in that quiet place. My posting slowed down, my energy dipped, and despite my love for this community, I stepped back. Not because the mission faded, but because I needed to pause long enough to hear what God was saying next. Every one of us knows that space, the place where your spirit says, enough for the moment, sit still and let me speak.
Many of you reached out asking if I was all right. Thank you. Truly. Ministry is a strange calling. It demands your whole heart, yet it also insists that you guard that same heart with care. If a priest never rests, the work stops being holy and starts becoming noise. So I listened, and in the listening, something important stirred.
Because in that stillness I realized something undeniable: the Spirit is widening this ministry, not shrinking it. The pause was not a retreat. It was a deep breath before a long stride forward.
And so today I want to share what is emerging, what I believe God is asking me to build, and how grateful I am that you are walking this road with me.
TRANSITION
Part of this new chapter comes with a major personal move. In the coming days I’ll be relocating back to New York. It is a homecoming of the heart as much as a practical need. At this stage of life, I want to be geographically closer to my family who is there, and something in my spirit knows that the next phase of Message from the Margins belongs there too. There will be more opportunities for collaboration, to start the podcast I have been dreaming of, to create more content.
The change is significant, but it is also freeing. I am stepping into a season where this work, our digital community here, becomes my full-time vocation. No more fitting your needs into the cracks of a crowded schedule. No more guilt over not being able to do it all. The vision God placed on my heart years ago is ready to be lived in full daylight.
And quietly, I will tell you this. I have begun praying about planting something new in time. A community. A sacramental home for those who have been bruised by churches that forgot the Gospel they were meant to proclaim. Nothing grand, nothing flashy, just a place where people can breathe again and find Christ waiting for them without condition. This is only a seed for now, but seeds have a habit of becoming trees.
REFLECTION
Scripture reminds us that even Jesus stepped away to pray. Luke tells us, “He would withdraw to deserted places and pray.” He did this not because He lacked strength, but because He honored the rhythm of creation. Work and rest. Giving and receiving. Pouring out and filling up again.
During my recent quiet stretch, I kept returning to the words of Isaiah: “Behold, I am doing a new thing. Now it springs forth… do you not perceive it?” That line has been knocking at my door. What God renews is seldom what we expect. It is usually larger, more alive, and certainly more demanding. But it is always good.
My vulnerability in all this is simple. I fear disappointing people. I want to be fully present. I want to show up with every ounce of compassion, clarity, theology, and truth you deserve. Stepping back, even briefly, felt like letting someone down. But avoiding rest never did anyone any favors. The pause allowed me to see that the ministry ahead is calling for more of me, not less… and that the only way to serve well is to arrive with a full heart.
Now I feel that full heart returning. The path ahead is clearer. And the work is only just beginning.
CALL TO FAITHFUL ACTION
As we step into this next chapter together, I invite you to join me in a simple spiritual practice. Listen for the “new thing” God is doing in your own life. Not the loud thing. Not the dramatic one. The quiet pull in your chest that keeps resurfacing when the world grows still.
Let your faith be active. Let your compassion be practical. And let your courage be real. The false gospels of fear, resentment, and power have enough disciples out there. Our task is different. Our task is love one another as Christ loved us, and to build something new from the margins inward.
CLOSING PRAYER
Holy One,
You meet us in our stillness and in our striving. You speak in the quiet corners of our days and in the loud turning points of our lives. Thank You for the rest that restores, for the breath that steadies, and for the gentle nudge that sends us forward again with renewed purpose.
Bless this community that gathers here. Bless the weary, the hopeful, the searching, and the faithful. Bless those who have been hurt by churches that forgot Your mercy, and draw them into the safety of Your heart. As I begin this next chapter, root every word I speak and every action I take in Your compassion. Let this ministry grow into what You desire, nothing more and nothing less.
Guide me as I move home. Watch over my family and all who are preparing for change in their own lives. Open the path You want us to walk. Plant in us the seeds of a new and holy work, and give us the courage to nurture it.
May we become a people of peace, justice, tenderness, and truth.
In Your name we begin again.
Amen.