|
The past few weeks have been a blessed whirlwind at St. Paul’s. We had the celebration for Pastor Thomas as he retired from his role of senior pastor at St. Paul’s, honoring 42 years of dedicated ministry to the work of the church, Christ, and His kingdom. We celebrated this past weekend the Festival of the Reformation, a celebration of how God used an unlikely German monk to illuminate the light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ once more in His church. On a lighter note, we pulled off a Worst WurstFest in lieu of the Brat and Pie Fry, and an off-campus 2024 Trunk-or-Treat due to construction. Our school has won a city championship in soccer and sent three cross country runners to Wisconsin for the National Lutheran Cross Country Nationals.
In a lot of ways, the past two weeks have been an excellent preview of what we so often see in the holiday season; it is so busy, you feel like you blink and it has already happened.
However, now we reach a moment of waiting. Whether in the construction project, the work of the call committee, or even just waiting to see what God will do with all that St. Paul’s is looking to build upon — no matter how you are connected to St. Paul's, we now have to be patient. There will be a point in the future wherein St. Paul’s will have a next senior pastor, a point in which the building is complete, and a point in which much of what is uncertain will be made clear.
In time — in His timing — God will provide the answers to all of the questions, unknowns, uncertainties, concerns, and even fears that may be going through your mind with all the changes St. Paul’s is experiencing.
It is a little like blind Bartimaeus. I thought of Bartimaeus, a man who waited a long time to hear God’s answer to his cry, and yet in God’s time, the response was beyond Bartimaeus’ imagination. He trusted in God’s provision, and then he waited. But it was his faith in Christ, his faith in God, that allowed him to endure until that moment when God answered. So think about how you can be like Bartimaeus over the next few months, patiently waiting along the road. Be like him, calling faithfully to Jesus, and be ready to follow Christ on His way when the time comes. Follow the instruction of the Psalmist: trust in the Lord, befriend His faithfulness, and be faithful to Him. Commit your way to Him, and you’ll be amazed at everything He is doing through this church, even in and through you … all while we wait.
“Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in Him, and He will act. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday. Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him (Psalm 37:2–7)."
__________________
| 
