Sally from Eternal Echoes, hosts the RevGalblogPals Friday five today, and she says:

As I prepare this post I am aware that it will be posted on New Years Day. We stand at the beginning of 2010 looking not only at a New Year, but at a new decade full of promise and possibilities. For some of us this will be exciting, but others will approach it with trepidation and probably most of us stand on this threshold with a mix of emotions and reactions.

It is at this time of year that many (British) Methodist Churches celebrate their Annual Covenant Service, a service that will include this prayer:

I am no longer my own but yours,
Put me to what you will,
rank me with whom you will;
put me to doing,
put me to suffering;
let me be employed for you,
or laid aside for you,
exalted for you,
or brought low for you;
let me be full,
let me be empty,
let me have all things,
let me have nothing:
I freely and wholeheartedly yield all things
to your pleasure and disposal.
And now glorious and blessed God,
Father , Son and Holy Spirit,
you are mine and I am yours.
May it be so forever.
Let this covenant now made on earth
be fulfilled in heaven. AMEN

This prayer is said every year, and offers every member an opportunity to renew their covenant with God. This is no soft or easy prayer, it states in the company of others our willingness to worship God come what may, not that we should become doormats, but that we place God above all else. (And every year if we are honest we have to acknowledge that we fail).

With this prayer in mind I bring you this Friday Five:

1. What will you gladly leave behind in 2009?
unemployment :) OK, I graduated from seminary in May, but I have been unemployed for the first time since high school, in 1978. 7 months with no real daily purpose and activities has been mentally draining.

2. What is the biggest challenge of 2010 for you?
Beginning my first call as a Minister of Word and Sacrament. Writing a sermon every week, getting to know the new folks, trying not to step into too many unseen piles of fertilizer. My first wedding, funeral, baptism, etc. I'm coming off a successful career and starting back at the beginning, totally new to the job and expectations so I have to find my voice as a pastor.

3. Is there anything that you simply need to hand to God and say "all will be well, for you are with me"?
see above :) Without God, #2 would be impossible!

4. If you could only achieve one thing in 2010 what would it be?
becoming their pastor in truth, not just in title and paycheck.

5. Post a picture, poem or song that sums up your prayer for the year ahead....