Isaiah writes: I am the Lord, your holy one, Israel’s creator, your king! The Lord says—who makes a way in the sea and a path in the mighty waters, who brings out chariot and horse, and battalion; they will lie down together and will not rise; they will be extinguished, established like a wick.
Don't remember the prior thing; don’t ponder ancient history. Look! I am doing a new thing; now it sprouts up; don’t you recognize it? I’m making a way in the desert, paths in the wilderness…. I have put water in the desert and streams in the wilderness to give water to my people, my chosen ones. (Isaiah 43:15-20 CEB)
Well, God is certainly doing a new thing in my life. How about you? Who would have thought last year this time, I would step out of retirement to be an interim district superintendent for the Purchase District? Wasn’t on my radar screen! And, who thought we would find ourselves in the midst of pandemics of Covid-19 and racism?
Around the middle of March, I described this time we were facing as a wilderness, a desert place, where the way through is not clear at all. In many ways, we are still feeling or stumbling our way finding new paths by which to travel these times.
I am grateful for the ways in which our pastors, congregational leaders, and others are winding our way through these anxious and uncertain times. We will all make more mistakes along the way and we will, I hope, find God’s provisions as we move along together.
I am humbled and honored to be serving Christ among you. This is a very talented and committed district. We are all making adjustments. We are all learning how to trust God afresh and anew. It is not easy. I ask for us to live with each other with grace and responsible actions. To be quick to listen and pause before responding. I will try to do the same. There will be times we will disagree. Disagreement does not mean we must “write each other off.”
A couple of questions I invite you to ponder with me: 1) What is God wanting to teach us in this time? 2) How might God be using this time and its circumstances to grow us deeper? 3)What am I/we needing to let go of in order to embrace God’s new things that seem to be emerging?
Grace and Peace,
Ben
