Switching Pronouns

I’m having a lot of trouble with pronouns these days. I’m not talking about honoring the preferred pronouns someone chooses. That’s a good thing, although for those of us who didn’t grow up with such options, it’s often difficult. But those aren’t the pronouns I’m having trouble with right now. It’s when to use we and when to use you.

For six years I’ve been we with Ascension. I’ve challenged our community in sermons with the pronoun we. I’ve remembered our past with we. I’ve looked forward to our future with we. We have been doing ministry together. We have had some glorious moments. We have worshipped inside, outside, with various levels of precautions. We have weathered some storms. We have butted heads at times. We have laughed often. And we have loved and cared for one another through it all.

But now I am starting to refer to Ascension as you. It usually happens when I’m leaving instructions for something that needs to happen after I leave. And I catch myself in the we. No, we aren’t going to be doing this next week. You are. It’s all very confusing and leaves me in complete liminal limbo—right smack dab in the middle of nowhere.

I like the warmth of living in a we-state. You-ville is such a detached, uncaring place to be. My we days are rapidly coming to an end, and I wonder how long it will take me to permanently lose the we. That will be when I start referring to Ascension as them. Ugh. I’m not ready to think about that yet. I’m having enough trouble going from we to you.