Over the years I’ve taken many job assessments and have always come up with the same catagories; such as taxi driver, office manager, funeral director and minister.

The jobs I’ve taken over the years have fallen into these catagories. Most notable was working in a large incoming call center. I had 250 employees. Later after getting sober I began working at a specialized grocery store, and then became manager of a coffee shop. Did I enjoy these damn jobs? Hell no, but changing jobs seemed at lot less scary and very comfortable. Every one of these jobs fell within the results the guidelines from my assessments.

The assessments were lengthy but they all came up with the same list. One item that was always listed, was for me to become a minister. We laughed about it in high school when we had career assessments done. I chuckled at the idea over the years when time after time “minister” would rate highly. The humor was that I was an atheist/agnostic for most of those years. What in hell kind of church would want an atheistic minister? So I would just ignore the idea and move on to the rest of the recommended positions. Some were good and some where bad, but in all situations that I did work just never made me feel I was doing anything important. I needed something more.

I have finally chosen the ministry.

So now I’m starting to finally get my undergraduate degree and then go to seminary school. Yep, all those chuckles I’ve done over the years were frequently to hide the fact that I liked the idea. Finally I’ve broken down and I’m in school to receive my to BA degree and then go off to seminary for four more years to receive my masters degree and become a minister.

What changed? I discovered that I am a Unitarian Universalist (UU). As a UU minister I can be an atheist and be a minister, I can be catholic and be a minister, I can be Christian and be a minister, I can be a Mystic, Wiccan, Quaker, Jew and more and can still be a minister. Unitarians don’t claim to have all the answers so it’s up to each congregant to work and develop their spirituality For UU’s, the path I take in my spiritual life may be completely different than some/many of our congregants. UU’s don’t claim to have the answers, but as UU’s we embrace each other’s ideas so we can help guide them on their journey. The only thing a Unitarian Universalist does not tolerate is intolerance.