God has spoken to the church this year about risk, about what we are willing to risk for him. For someone under the age of 40, changing jobs is probably no big deal. In many cases, it would be perceived as riskier to stay in the same job. For someone like me,, over the age of 60, changing jobs is a different proposition, especially if you have been with the same company for 12 years, all your previous jobs averaged just 2 years, and you anticipated retiring from your current company. The choice I faced was to stay put where I have been for 12 years, doing what I am good at or to leave the comfortable behind and go to work for someone different doing something I haven’t done before; to go from being a senior staff member to being the new kid; to go from being proven and trusted to being untried. Looking back over the past year and a half, I see God’s fingerprints. He has worked in various ways to loosen my grip on my current job, and to open my mind to the possibility of being somewhere else. I didn’t go looking for something else or even somewhere else I was for the most part content. The something else can looking for me. I believe God has opened the door. I think I have it in me (with God’s help) to prove myself at least once more. On Monday I start a new job as a Practice Advisor at the Ontario Association of Architects. I will no longer be practicing architecture, rather I will be working for the governing body, helping other architects to practice well, and helping to support the profession. I don’t know what God intends to accomplish through this, I just know that my sphere of influence, my oikos is changing. I am looking forward to the change and to the challenge.