Today, you join in membership. This is a moment of excitement and possibility. And although I don’t wish to pull you out of this moment, I need to talk to you for a bit about a moment in your future.

There will come a time when we are not a community of excitement and possibility that is your true home. There will come a moment when you do not fit, and we disappoint you.

Memorize the feelings you have in this moment, because you will need them months from now or years from now. You will need them in the broken-hearted moment to come, when you realize that we, together, are not all that you thought we were.

You will not fit. If every one of us fit, we would not be called to grow. This religion is not a thing you join, it is a thing you are called to co-create.

So prepare now, for when we break one another's hearts. Know what will carry you through that, and know who will carry you through that. Be ready. Hold on to this moment, and this memory, for that time in the future when you are ready to turn away.

Your moment of re-membership will be one of the most precious parts of your journey as a Unitarian Universalist. Today, plant the seeds in your heart that will prepare you for it.