As I write, I have exactly 25 days and 20 hours until I graduate from the Virginia Seminary. I’ve been going to school since kindergarten, and I plan to celebrate this well-deserved graduation in style.
But as I leave the academic world and this scholarly bubble that I inhabit, I leave the only way of life that I know. Maggie and I are setting off down a road that we have never trod before. We’re supposed to go, but where?
“O God, whose Son Jesus is the good shepherd of thy people: Grant that when we hear his voice we may know him who calleth us each by name, and follow where he doth lead; who, with thee and the Holy Spirit, liveth and reignety, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.”
When I have no words to describe my trepidation and joy with my new position in life, this handy little thing called the Book of Common Prayer does remarkably well. That voice of the shepherd brought me and Maggie together, it has carried us through this long three years apart, it has enlightened our path to Waco, and I trust that this same voice will never go mute…
the rev. jimmy abbott 
I am honored to be invited into the lives of you and Maggie as someone who is in the world that you all are stepping into. There is a church family and a pulpit and an office and a city and new employers and unmet friends who are waiting for you down the road. Trust me, the voice of the Shepherd will never go mute; he is calling, just keep on following.