priest for life

I have watched another 10 of my fellow travellers get ordained today. Also saw some of the crew who had got under the wire at the end of June.
We wait for Jen to get ordained hopefully in December and then we have all got through.
The scary thing is this is the job you can t resign from, now the Bishops hands have been on you , you stay a priest.
Isn't this a bit odd? For some other faiths they can opt into ( and out) of the priesthood. I am not sure that the new testament says once you have been ordained it is for life. But certainly the disciples and early church saw their role for life or maybe that is until they were martyred.
For me it is still early days but it makes sense, the whole choosing and training takes roughly 5 years, so you wouldn't want to do that for 5 mins in the post.
Today was great to see so many smiling faces.
the other thing that amazes me is that God has not chosen identikit priests to serve him. We are so different from each and being sent to serve in places that are equally diverse. It gives you hope that God must really behind it !