God's Timing

So much has been happening so fast that I hardly know where to begin! First, I want to publically announce my excitement that Beth Wrenn from North Carolina has been elected president of the Churchwide Women of the ELCA! Beth is a dear friend and sister in Christ – I have served with her in the past on the North Carolina Women of the ELCA synodical board- and she has been very supportive as Ray and I have travelled this seminary journey. I am confident that she will do a superb job of leading the women’s organization through the next triennium!

Second, I am pleased to report that our call process is continuing to unfold. We met with the congregational council last week and they voted to recommend us to the congregation. We will be meeting with members of the congregation next week and they will be voting on whether or not to call us as their next pastors on Sunday, July 27. We are grateful that the process is proceeding on this path and pray for God’s guidance for the entire congregation and for both of us as this process draws nearer to completion.

Now for more on the topic of God's timing...

I remember – what seems like not so very long ago - telling Ray that I wished I could take a summer off from my business career: to stay home, spend more time with the kids, float in our backyard pool, read, garden a bit, tend the roses, knit, and just relax. It really does seem like a short time ago, but it was probably when our children were 8 and 11. They are now 28 and 31, so quite some time has passed since then!

As you might guess, I never got that long-ago summer off, but we have in many ways had most of this summer of transition “off”! Getting my summer off now includes having time for many of those same things – but now the time at home is spent preparing it to go on the market. Time with my children is spent helping our son and his wife with their daughter and newborn twin sons or helping our daughter plan and prepare for her September wedding.

We no longer have a backyard pool, but I still have plenty of reading to do. The garden consists of two tomato plants and a few flowers in pots that we can move when the time comes. The roses we tend are in the memorial garden on the seminary campus instead of our own backyard. I’ve been knitting and catching up on some sleep, but still not really relaxing.

I’m not sure exactly what all this says about God’s timing – apparently I didn’t need that long ago summer off as much as I thought. And apparently I did need this one to transition between life as a student and life as a parish pastor. Yet it seems that instead of savoring my summer off, I find myself looking forward – trying to imagine and prepare for the next step in our journey. Honestly, I probably would have done much the same thing twenty years ago.

Many of us are familiar with the words of Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 (NRSV) beginning: "For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven." The verses that follow are ones that we can probably all sing along to a familiar tune.

But now I find myself pondering some other verses in that same chapter. As I read these, I am reminded that it is important for each of us to have things to do, but that we should not forget what God has already done, is doing, and promises yet to do!

"I have seen the business that God has given to everyone to be busy with. He has made everything suitable for its time; moreover he has put a sense of past and future into their minds, yet they cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. I know that there is nothing better for them than to be happy and enjoy themselves as long as they live; moreover, it is God's gift that all should eat and drink and take pleasure in all their toil. I know that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it; God has done this, so that all should stand in awe before him." (Ecclesiastes 3:10-14, NRSV)