Redefined Reality: What Things Might Become

       Since June I’ve been working with a congregation that is searching for a new pastor. It’s been an honor and a joy to travel alongside them this summer.
       By the time I arrived, members of this community of faith already were making their way through this time of pastoral transition, as well as through the unknown territory of being the church during a global pandemic.
       Given all of that, it would be easy for them to want to cling to how things have always been. No one would really blame them.
       I’m guessing many of us can relate to that longing. So much has changed and continues to change around us that returning to how things have always been would be comforting. So much has been and continues to be uncertain that returning to any sense of normal would be reassuring.

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       I’m guessing many of us can relate to that longing. So much has changed and continues to change around us that returning to how things have always been would be comforting. So much has been and continues to be uncertain that returning to any sense of normal would be reassuring.
       But on Sunday I wondered out loud with the congregation whether this might be a time to listen for God’s call to move from how things have been to what they might become.
       Maybe we can help redefine our reality if we remember that when God calls us to continue along our journeys of faith, that call often involves moving from the safe spot of how it’s always been to the riskier place of what it might become.
       Responding to that call can lead us in some surprising directions. Perhaps even to a redefined reality that exceeds anything we might imagine.
                                                                                                                         KP