Obligations and Reminders

“We take our lead from Christ, who is the source of everything we do.  He keeps us in step with each other.  His very breath and blood flow through us, nourishing us so that we will grow up healthy in God, robust in love.”  (Ephesians 4: 16  The Message)

It was yet another obligation to fulfill. 

As a part of the Missional Church Consultative Initiative offered by the Minnesota Annual Conference I was on the road early on a Tuesday morning to attend the pastor’s monthly trainings that are part of the experience. All the way to the meeting in Minneapolis I muttered to myself about the scarcity of time.  The day before Ash Wednesday was a crazy time to have to be out and about!  There was a staff meeting to run, and countless emails to write and ushers to find for worship and and and…   As you can imagine, the state of my being was a bit like the cloud that followed Pigpen in the Peanuts cartoons.

I rolled into the meeting after stopping for a double-shot latte and had a bit of time before my colleagues arrived.  The woman who is our coach was there and she greeted me like I was some sort of walking miracle.  Her warm delight in my presence got through the funk surrounding me.  She asked me how I was and I answered honestly that I was feeling grumpy and overwhelmed by the so-much of ministry.

She listened.  Her eyes told me that she heard me.  She didn’t try to talk me out of my sense of overwhelmed but instead allowed me to be beleaguered and sad and all the other things that can walk in a human on a dense day.

And then she began our clergy time together with a scripture verse that seemed tailor-made for the wounds of my soul. She shared the verse printed above and she named to reality that each day is irreplaceable and never to be repeated.  She spoke of how it is God’s grace drenches all of our being:  the tired and parched places, the jaggedy and hurting places, the overdone and underprepared places.

I felt held and blessed and the cloud of angst settled around me and was replaced with a hum of gratitude.  Christ is the source of everything we do, everything I do.  So how is it I will allow his very breath and blood to flow through me?

Truly, truly I seek to live a life healthy in God, robust in love.

 Sometimes I just need to be reminded.

~Pastor Elizabeth