Pastor’s Perspective

From the September Church Newsletter 2023

The summer is passing by. Perhaps rudely since it offers neither explanation nor apology. 

I seem to find myself in a time of life when, although I expected some ease now that children have graduated and almost grown, unexpected labors have intruded like masked Halloween revelers popping out from behind the bushes by my front door trying to be scary. "Maybe now," I had thought. "Maybe now I can get to that deep thought project that has been lurking in the hallway where 'finally a moment' meets 'other things must be done first'." 

If summer could last just a little longer, then maybe I could get to all those things. But it won't last longer. It inevitably slips away and opportunity with it. Still, there is grace to be found in the slipping away. Something precious. A valued glimpse of possibilities yet to come. Love and mercy still to be given and received. Forgiveness that sticks to the morning dew. A stretching of the mind and outlook away from self. But also the hope that, along with summer's heat sliding off into the past, unhealthy enthusiasms might become mere memories. 

Room needs to be made for thoughts that would cause the face of Christ to smile and, enacted, would make the world more like the Kingdom of God.

Blessings for September.

Allen Cross