A Different Direction

A Different Direction

Life is always changing. Some of these changes are good and then some are not. There are those for whom moving into something new can be difficult, while other’s find it invigorating.  My family has experienced both sides of this coin as we made the transition into this new community. What I love about change is that I never know which direction the Spirit is leading me. It forces me to embrace change faithfully, by relying on God for grace and mercy.  

Of course, some changes are easier to embrace. Take the weather for example.

As I write, the sun is shining and the air outside is crisp. Who would have thought that just a few days ago the first snow flurries of the season would arrive? If I have learned anything in my few short weeks here it is to take advantage of these beautiful days because you never know what tomorrow will bring.  Now, instead embracing a beautiful day by playing golf with friends, I rush home from work and arm myself with a leaf blower. In spite of using the wind to push the leaves towards the street, the wind eventually changes direction and the leaves scatter around the yard again. 

As we gather together to worship, you will notice changes; some barely noticeable and some very obvious.  I pray that you will embrace these changes with me. May we all remember the words we spoke together after communion last week when we asked God to, “Deepen in us the vision of what is yet to come, that we may find in every change, not an ending, but a beginning, the sign of a new creation within ourselves and this community of faith.” 

Window Poems #20

In the early morning dark
he dreamed of the spring woodsflowers
standing in the ground,
dark yet under the leaves and under the bare cold branches.

But in his dream he knew their way
was prepared, and in their time
they would rise up and be joyful.
And though he had dreamed earlier
of strife, his sleep became peaceful.

He said: If we, who have killed
our brothers and hated ourselves,
are made in the image of God,
then surely the bloodroot,
wild phlox, trillium, and mayapple
are more truly made
in God’s image,
for they have desired to be
no more than they are,
and they have spared each other.

Their future
is undiminished by their past.
Let me, he said in his dream,
become always less a soldier
and more a man,
for what is unopened in the ground
is pledged to peace.
When he woke and went out
a flock of wild ducks that had fed
on the river while he slept
flew off in fear of him.

And he walked, manly, into the new day.
He came to his window
where he sat and looked out,
the earth before him, blessed
by his dream of peace,
bad history behind him.
-       by Wendell Berry. The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry. Counterpoint Press: 1998.