Eggs & Baskets

Do not put your trust in princes, in human beings, who cannot save.

—Psalm 146:3

When I worked at the church, I put all my eggs in the job basket, until it became impossibly heavy, and it broke. When I gave back my computer and my keys, I gave back my identity, my confidence, my legitimacy.

At a speaking engagement several weeks later, I felt like I had no right to be there, but I stood onstage and told the audience things my friends and I had learned while we worked at churches, the lessons we learned the hard way, and the things I wish I had known when I began.

After my talk, I felt like I was in free fall. I didn’t have a title or a business card anymore. But to my surprise, I found that I had my own experiences, mistakes, and successes, and those are things you don’t give back when you turn in your keys and your laptop. I took up my own space and told my own stories, stories that I earned along the way. I felt, possibly for the very first time, like I was holding my own eggs in my very own basket. I hate how I got there, but it feels like an important place to be.