06/01/24.
As I sit here, pondering what words to share with you as Betsy and I continue to prepare to move to a new appointment in a new community, I find myself “stuck.” Moving is always bittersweet regardless of the circumstances. Much has been endured these past five years: Covid, unsettled feelings within our United Methodist Church, etc. But even so, there have been enduring bonds of friendship in Christ created, and for these, Betsy and I are eternally grateful.
And so, as you prepare to send us off and to receive Jeff and Nettie and their family, I leave with you the following meditation from Howard Thurman’s Meditations of the Heart. This is my prayer for us all.
I Seek Room for Peace
I SEEK the enlargement of my heart that there may be room for Peace.
Already there is room enough for chaos. There is in every day’s experience much that makes for confusion and bewilderment. Often I do not understand quite how my relations with others become frayed and chaotic. Sometimes this chaos is a positive thing; it means that something new, creative and whole is beginning to pull together the tattered fragments of my relationship with a person and to fashion it into that which delights the spirit and makes glad the heart. Sometimes the chaos is negative, a sign of degeneration in a relationship once meaningful and good. There is room enough for chaos.
But the need of my heart is for room for Peace: Peace of mind that inspires singleness of purpose; Peace of heart that quiets all fears and uproots all panic; Peace of spirit that filters through all confusions and robs them of their power. These I see NOW. I know that here in this quietness my life can be infused with Peace.
Therefore, before God, I seek the enlargement of my heart at this moment,
that there may be room for Peace.1
Peace, in Christ,
Pastor Jim
1 Thurman, Howard. Meditations of the Heart (pp. 186-187). Beacon Press. Kindle Edition.