Graduation and Vacation

As I’ve mentioned, Josanne and I will not be with you this Sunday as we travel to Lexington, KY to celebrate our daughter, Bethany’s, graduation from the University of Kentucky. Graduations are milestones and we are certainly proud of Bethany for all of her hard work. What’s been so difficult along the way sometimes is that the goal seems so far away. Graduation requires consistently doing what needs to be done every day even when the end is nowhere in sight.

This reminds me a bit of the Christian life, and especially the exile that we’ve been thinking about so much lately. God had promised his people that they’d be in exile for 70 years. That’s a long time to consistently do the right thing day in and day out, trusting that God will bring about what he promised. And, of course, many of the people in exile would never see the end goal of being returned to the land and the temple being rebuilt. It’s an image of faithfulness.

I’m often struck by the faithfulness of the many who’ve come before us to ensure we have not only a place to worship and fellowship, but also the legacy of the committed group of Christ-followers of which we are a part. We have a responsibility to ensure that this continues. This requires all of us to be faithful in our attendance, faithful in our service, and faithful in our giving.

Josanne and I will then be on vacation from the 9th through the 14th. We’re looking forward to some extended time together and some time to unwind. A friend of mine and former co-worker of mine, Bob Monts, will be here next Sunday both to teach Sunday School, and also to bring the message during our worship service. Please offer him a warm welcome.

Remember that on May 15th, we’ll be celebrating Pentecost with other area congregations as is our custom. This year we’ll all be gathering at the Danvers Presbyterian Church at 10am. Each of the pastors of the area congregations, myself included, will be conducting a part of the service. However, we will not have our normal Sunday School, or fellowship times May 15th. I do encourage you all to come out to hear from James Munro of Operation Stand Down, which is a program to help veterans in need. The offering taken at the Pentecost service will go to this program.

We’ll miss you all next week, but we’ll be back before you know it!

God bless, Brian