A week ago, Laura and I left the house to visit family in Iowa and there were buds on our trees. As we were out and about, we noted elsewhere that the leaves were already out on the trees along our drive only to return home to find our trees leafed out and shading the yard. I love the changes of spring! Things keep blooming and growing, transforming the world around us in trickles and in bursts. I don’t tend to be someone who likes change for changes sake, but nature itself reminds me that life is constantly changing and that when we open our eyes to see and embrace that change, we might just catch a glimpse of wonder.
The other day Steve Garnaas-Holmes shared a story in his daily reflection “unfolding light” that captured my imagination in this season:
“A girl in my high school that I never knew but saw a lot used to go around every corner in the hallway as if she'd never been there before. She'd lean way out to the side to look, almost on one foot, the other stretched behind, as if to see it for the first time, as if to check it out before she committed to making the turn. But she always made the turn. It wasn't fearful, just a pause, a moment of expectation. “Look,” she told herself, “I'm turning a corner!” I loved it. Whenever I saw her do it I'd walk into my next classroom with a little bit of anticipation, even under pretense, a little expectation that I might be surprised. Or I might actually turn a corner and actually do something for the first time. And I often surprised myself. I looked as if for the first time, and often saw something for the first time. Or saw somebody I'd seen a thousand times as if for the first time. I still love her for it.
What a beautiful image of engaging every turn in life with curiosity and even excitement. I am humbled to imagine moving forward as a church with that spirit. Everything that we read and learn about the church reminds us that there are changes before us. I heard last week that the church is declining as a percentage of population in every corner of the world. And yet (and yet!), there is always faith that we are a tradition that celebrates resurrection even after what we perceive as death and decay. As I keep sharing, we are in a moment in time when it is unclear what that future might look like. So, I choose to trust, because I’d rather turn every corner with curiosity and anticipation than wring my hands in fear. That’s hard to do when finances are challenging, when our world can impose the weary burdens of uncertainty, and when anxiety is used as a tool to push particular agendas. How can we sing a different song in our lives, one that fills pauses with expectation, that looks to celebrate the surprises?
This summer, part of this effort to see anew will be to reclaim some things we’ve done before. We will once again have a Habitat Trip, but with an even more intergenerational team. We’ll return to Canada canoeing, this time sharing the experience with many who have never been with us before. We will look to see through new eyes in each of those settings. At Peace Church, we will be shifting our worship times and services for the summer season. We’ve talked about trying this for years, so this year we will have one worship service at 9:00 a.m. on Sunday mornings. We may be blessed with fuller feeling services through this little change of pace, and we certainly will lean into a season where we all come together without the question of “what service do you go to?” Maybe, this experience will offer a chance to worship with friends and family who have been at “the other service” for years.
I hope that we can all approach the change with the open spirit of wonder. At the same time, we are working to pull together a midweek service that will take on a very different form from Sunday mornings. The hope is to have a space that engages our journeys of faith a little differently than what we’ve always done: more interaction, less formality, a gathering to try to listen in one more way that God is leading us. There will be more information about this soon.
We keep trying to pay attention to how our still-speaking God is leading us into a future yet unknown. My prayer is that each of us would tell our story: celebrate the corners of the past where we were surprised with wonder; and peek around the corners ahead trying to imagine what ministry is still unfolding among us.
May God bless us with surprises and insights that feed our souls and inspire us to steward the love of God into the world in ever expanding ways!
Pastor Eric