Well, I've tried lots of things... holding my breath... pacing around... plugging my ears and talking loud... not turning the calendar page... none of it has worked. The time has passed by (as it always does), and this Sunday is the final one for Jarrod and Lauren to be with us.
It will be a good Sunday... we'll celebrate their time with us, how God has shaped us all and worked through us to His glory... we'll give gifts and reminisce and share in a meal together, prepared with loving attention to detail. There will be lots of smiles and stories and laughter and some tears. We'll all relish the time of celebration.
But when it's all over and the fellowship hall is cleaned up and the tables put away, it will settle in. An era in the life of the Eastside Church... and in my ministry life... will be over... and I will be sad. I will miss both Jarrod and Lauren... the people they are... the gifts they so willingly use... the integrity that shape their interactions with others. I won't be the only one to miss them... we all will... and we'll grieve.
But with their departure God will begin a new era in the life of the Eastside Church and, yes, in my ministry as well. And one by one all of us at Eastside will turn our thoughts and our prayers and our anticipating hearts toward what God will next do among us. Today I told someone that the last couple of months (leader selection, Jarrod leaving, new youth minister) felt like riding God's roller coaster, hanging on to the crash bar because I hadn't fastened the belt.... a bit scary... but definitely exhilarating.
Keep Eastside in your prayers... we need to really pay attention so we don't miss God's next steps among us.
1 comment:
Your rollercoaster analogy reminds me of one of my favorite scenes from the movie Parenthood. In it, Grandma is talking to her adult grandson, Gil:
Grandma: You know, when I was nineteen, Grandpa took me on a roller coaster.
Gil: Oh?
Grandma: Up, down, up, down. Oh, what a ride!
Gil: What a great story.
Grandma: I always wanted to go again. You know, it was just so interesting to me that a ride could make me so frightened, so scared, so sick, so excited, and so thrilled all together! Some didn't like it. They went on the merry-go-round. That just goes around. Nothing. I like the roller coaster. You get more out of it.
I've tended to be more of merry-go-round person in my life; I think God is trying to teach me to like rollercoasters. Nevertheless, Sunday is going to be hard.
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