As we enter Thanksgiving, much leaves me in awe at the incredible blessings with which life abounds. The challenge is that problems/ angst/ stress remain loud. Blessings, like God, are still and quiet.
There are of the course the material parts of life to be thankful for. With NewChurch LIVE I am thankful for the overwhelming generosity of donors, the clear vision of leaders, the work of paid and volunteer team members, a continued tradition of inspiring music, amazing congregants here and scattered across the country.
And there is something more for which I am thankful. In Ephesians 1, we read these words by one of the founders of the Christian Church, “I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you.” I am thankful for the Hope to which we are called.
You know, why else do this, build this church thing, unless in some way we were all called to a unique hope. Words around that probably of necessity fail. But maybe the concept points to a deeper heart motivation, a deeper “knowing” that resonates with a Heart far larger than this particular church.
I don’t believe we start the journey “knowing” what exactly that hope is. I do believe we touch it – glancing blows here and there – as we seek to serve. This mirror’s God’s spirit, a spirit that fails to arrive in a mechanistic, prescribed fashion. As Christ noted, spirit like the wind, blows where it will and we are not (thankfully!) given to control it.
What we are given is the ability to respond to it, to acknowledge, and allow spirit to accomplish, over time, its works of shaping our lives.
The hope at the Heart of what we are doing is a loving world, one in which selfless endeavor finds itself transcendent over the fevered pursuit of “stuff” and “accomplishment.” The heart of stone becoming the heart of flesh. The hope of heaven becoming the hope of the world. Christ born anew into the world as Spirit, as Hope.
Have a blessed Thanksgiving!
