It was wonderful to see many of you in person on Sunday!
Two thoughts have anchored me during a season that’s full of newness for me right now. Before I share those two thoughts, let me give you some context about the season that Scott, Olivia, and I are in right now. We’re about to have a newborn. We’ll drive the baby home in a new car. We’ll bring that newborn home to a new house we moved into about 8 weeks ago. We’ll arrive home to a daughter who will be a big sister for the first time. Not to mention, we’re in unprecedented times with a pandemic. Our stay in the hospital will look different than it did the first time in many ways, as will life when we arrive home from the hospital. In a new house, teaching at the start of a new school year, preparing to welcome a new child into our family, there are few things that feel routine or second nature to me right now. True confessions? I take a long time to process change, and it’s not easy for me. I’m trying to put one foot in front of the other every day. But my feelings fluctuate from nostalgia to anxiety to gratitude. Yet, I want to embrace the newness. I want to trust God.
In this season of newness for us, two things have stuck with me recently:
1) Pastor Steve encouraged all of us at the sermon in the park with some of his opening words. He said Mary Weaver made this observation: “Perhaps we’ve been focusing too much on what we cannot do and who we cannot be.” It’s easy for all of us to focus on our limitations or what we’ve lost right now. In the new seasons I’m in, I can yearn for what used to be, and I can even resent what’s lacking. Many of us have lost something or experienced some changes that are difficult, and we might need to grieve those losses. Where I want to land, though, is in a place of looking for God’s inspiration about what we can do and who we can be in unique and meaningful ways. I’m looking forward to building memories in our new home with our new child. I’m eager to get to know a new group of students at school. I’m asking God to give us fresh vision for how to enjoy the extra rest at the hospital and the slower pace of life when we arrive home.
2) Psalm 62:5-8 has reminded me repeatedly of God’s steadfastness:
Yes, my soul, find rest in God;
my hope comes from him.
Truly he is my rock and my salvation;
he is my fortress, I will not be shaken.
he is my mighty rock, my refuge.
Trust in him at all times, you people;
pour out your hearts to him,
for God is our refuge.
I read this Psalm recently and have been dwelling on its truth as an anchor. No matter the season, we cannot be shaken with Christ as our rock.
I pray God will guide us all in trusting in Him as our rock and in looking to Him for what we can do and who we can be in this season.
Erica Dienner