In the News

FROM THE PASTOR

 It’s interesting, sometimes, to listen to someone who’s been around for awhile talk about all they’ve seen and experienced.  As they recount a particular time, or a decision they once made, they might even preface an observation with the words, “If I could do it all over again…” followed by a regret of some sort. 

Of course we can’t go back and “do it all over again.”  While that might make for an intriguing premise for a movie (remember Michael J. Fox in Back to the Future), for the most part we have to live with the choices we’ve made.  

But while we can’t go back, we can change course mid-stream. And so when we’re not pleased with the place our choices have brought us to we can look for a new job, return to school to learn a new skill, move across country, or simply re-orient our priorities. Maybe that’s one of the reasons why New Year celebrations carry so much meaning for some.   

There is something appealing in the idea of leaving the past behind and pursuing a new, if somewhat unknown course.  

The pursuit of that kind of change is also a central premise for those of us in the church.  We see it in the gospels, when Jesus praises the change of heart and life – we call it repentance - that Zaccheus manifests in Luke 19.  And Paul urges his readers to “lay aside the old self” and “put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created for righteousness and holiness” in Ephesians 4:24. We are a people who believe that regardless of what we’ve done, God is always willing to forgive and help us begin anew.        

As we step into a new year then, with all of its possibilities, I hope you’ll let God continue the work of re-creation within, that together we might become all that God has dreamed we might be.

 In Christ,

 Pastor Mark