Earlier this week I had the opportunity to hang with some ministry colleagues from the area. (Thanks, Bruce Bode for letting me know about the gathering!) We talked of our joys and sorrows, our ministries and ourselves.

Some of us are starting out, some mid-career, and some at or near retirement. We come from different cultures. Our gender and other identities vary. Some of us walk in sorrow, and others walk in joy and gratitude.

What joins us is knowing everybody in the room (and online) gets us. To a person, we know what it’s like to lead when we’re not feeling it. It’s not that we don’t care anymore, it’s just that ministry – from parish to chaplaincy, religious education to community – means returning to that place where we can be of use.

In our cases, to be of use to the people we serve. But it doesn’t stop there, because we also want to be of use to liberal religion in general. When we hang up the spikes, we want to know we’ve had even a small part in advancing a precious, demanding yet sometimes fragile way of religion.

All this is to say, the people we serve ( in my case that’s you, QUUF friends!) also long to be of use. And make no mistake, being of use is in your DNA. The ups and downs are real, at points joyous and heartbreaking. Yet here you are, still of use.

Back to that gathering of UU colleagues, like most of them my days are full. The expectations can be challenging, the learning curves are steeper than anticipated, and I’ve already stubbed my own toe a few times. And yet…and yet, I get to be with people who want to be of use.

Postscript: To learn more about the congregation’s DNA, go to quuf.org, click on “About QUUF” and scroll down to “History of QUUF.” If you know someone without or unable to operate a computer, check with them to see how they access information.