From Pastor/Head of Staff
Dear friends,
Summer is supposed to be a time to reset. It is supposed to be a time to play. It is supposed to be a time to reconnect with family and friends. It is supposed to be a time to breathe.
When I think of summer, I think of watermelon, corn-on-the-cob, and pool parties. I can almost taste the plump, juicy tomatoes sliced thick and pressed between two soft pieces of bread and the South Carolina peaches that are worth waiting for every year. Summer brings to mind homemade ice-cream, fireflies, and children playing tag. I imagine barefoot walks on the beach, visits to national parks, and waterskiing on the lake. I can almost see and hear the fireworks, parades, and celebrating people. I conjure up welcome breezes on hot days, hammocks that wrap you and rock you, and a book you want to climb into and stay with for a very long time.
What I don’t think of, is violence. What I don’t imagine, is pain. What I don’t have in mind, is hatred. Unfortunately, summer is not a dream, as much as we long for it to be. Life goes on in the summer just as it does any other time of year. There is love, but there is also hatred. There is peace, but there is also war. There is pardon, but there is also injury. This can be jarring for us to realize during the summer, or in any season.
But the other way around is also true, as acknowledged in the prayer known as the Prayer of St. Francis, which we sang a version of in worship this past Sunday:
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me bring love.
Where there is offence, let me bring pardon.
Where there is discord, let me bring union.
Where there is error, let me bring truth.
Where there is doubt, let me bring faith.
Where there is despair, let me bring hope.
Where there is darkness, let me bring your light.
Where there is sadness, let me bring joy.
O Master, let me not seek as much
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love,
for it is in giving that one receives,
it is in self-forgetting that one finds,
it is in pardoning that one is pardoned,
it is in dying that one is raised to eternal life.
We Christians hold onto hope in all things. We do this because Christ is our hope and has shown us the inbreaking of God’s Kingdom of peace among us. We hold onto hope because God is with us, our rock, our light, and our refuge. We also live into hope as we, by the power and gift of the Holy Spirit, enact the fruits of the Spirit in the world – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, generosity, and self-control.
This summer, may we find our peace in the shelter of God’s almighty arms, in turn, may we bring the peace of Christ, which passes all understanding, to the world.
With love,
Mindy
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