Dear Faith Friends,
On my sabbatical funding proposal and on my calendar this last week of the sabbatical is labeled “re-entry”
I’m coming round a familiar corner knowing some of what is ahead and knowing other things will be different than the last time I went down this road. I’ve had interactions with some staff members, done focused work on our worship series that begins in the beginning on September 10, planned debriefing, arranged meetings.
I will tell you my most daunting task as I turn the corner into the home stretch. It is constructing a God-focused, Christ-led schedule that nourishes my soul and ministry.
I discovered how much I need time with our God, how refreshing contemplation is, what pours peace into my being. I need to carve out that solitude, connection, and study. Plus, we are ever more committed to outward focused efforts in our community, as I take on more pastoral care.
I call myself “Chronos-challenged.” The hours I desire to put into life and work have always been more than God allotted. Sabbatical brought me face-to-face with the reality of the limits of time.
So, in this last week, I have wrestled hard with God’s calling to me, God’s calling to our congregation and the 24 hours in a day, 7 days in a week, 1 day of Sabbath that God has created.
This time, I intend to let God win the wrestling match and live – each hour – in both the expansiveness and the limits of my days.
I’ll see you, soon, when we turn that corner. When the time is right. I am excited to cross this finish line and be back with you again.
God bless us on the journey.
Charlotte
Since, then, we do not have the excuse of ignorance, everything – and I do mean everything – connected with that old way of life has to go. It’s rotten through and through. Get rid of it! And then take on an entirely new life – a God-fashioned life, a life renewed from the inside and working itself into your conduct as God accurately reproduced Christ’s character in you. – Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, chapter 4.