September 2009
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“For everything there is a season, and a time for
every matter under heaven.”(Ecclesiastes 3:1)
A week ago we loaded up the car and drove down to St.
David’s,
It
was a beautiful and hot summer day and we found the campus with no problems. We unpacked the things we loaded in the car
and as parents, tried to be helpful in arranging the articles in the dorm room.
Leah naturally wanted to arrange things
in her own way and so we had to back off. Fortunately, we were the first ones
to arrive to her floor so there weren’t other spectators to the awkward time of
not knowing the exact protocol of “letting go.”
Like many other parents of young adult children, I have
been wondering where did the time go? I’m sure many of you think back when our
children were just learning how to tie their own shoes or heading out to ride
the school bus for the first time. The
words to an old rock and roll song resonate in my head, “time keeps on
slipping, slipping, slipping into the future.”
Indeed, time does just slip away as go about our lives – working, paying
bills, raising our families, etc.
Time does seem to march forward and through life, and at
times we seem to get pulled along reluctantly for the ride. Yet, it is the constant change through the
seasons of life which makes life interesting.
God has granted us seasons in our lives to allow us to partake in a
myriad of experiences – some are joyful, some are hard. But it is this variety that offers the richness
of memories and makes life truly full, if we can pause every now and then and
appreciate it.
In Thornton Wilder’s play Our
Town, a character named Emily has a chance to look back into her life. She watches one of her birthday parties, and
then asks the narrator, “Do any human beings ever realize life while they live
it – every, every minute?” A poignant question for all of us.
As we move from the summer season into the fall season of
the church year I pray that may you be able to embrace all that life has to
offer. I invite you to enter into some
new aspect of the church life this year – perhaps Sunday School
or one of the choirs or join the Wednesday Morning Work Crew or the Watercolor
workshop. I especially encourage you to join together with
others as we pause on Sunday mornings and worship God our Creator and
Redeemer. As a community of faith we can
celebrate the mystery of life. Remember also that God, the author life and the
maker of time who promises to be with us as we journey together.
Your fellow servant on the journey,
Pastor Jon