beginning with gratitude
Gratitude is the only word I can find to describe the beginning of this new year. Gratitude for this incredible community of faith, for our precious staff, and for my family that shares this community with me. Gratitude for the ways in which this community has carried me and been carried by me.
Gratitude.
Gratitude not only for the incredible community into which we are called, but also for the Spirit’s push to claim it. Letting go of the pretences, of the misshapen answers, of the façade of control and claiming the incredible gift of community that is waiting.
Albert Schweitzer is quoted as saying: “At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.”
Recently I discovered unexpected strength in vulnerability when I said “help”. The response was immediate and loving and real; totally without question or judgment. And I am reminded that this is one of the most important reasons we bother to share our time, our talent, and even our money on an enterprise so passé as organized religion. We gather not to pay homage to a distant deity but rather to experience the power of the Presence realized in community.
Community is the safe space in which to acknowledge the wick even when it is cold. Community honors the holiness of the candle we bear (flame or no) and our community, when we are ready, will relight the flame. This of course is the pageantry we play out each Christmas morn as the flame passes through our sanctuary, celebrating Jesus’ birth not in some distant long ago but rather here and now.
EUCC is our community. It may be one of many communities that buoy our spirits, but this community is a central one in my life and I am grateful. Which is not a bad way to begin a new year!