Faith in Motion: Following God’s Call in a New Year
Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ of Peace and Grue Parish,
Blessings to you and all you hold dear as we enter into a new year. To be honest, I’ve never been great at New Year’s Resolutions, quite possibly because I am not the best at sticking to them. But, particularly as I get older, I pay more attention and try to recognize bad habits and things in my life that need to change in order to accommodate my body that is aging by the minute. Primarily, I need to consume less, and move more.
The understanding that through Christ, we are in a perpetual state of movement and transformation, just like our physical bodies, reminds us that it’s important to prayerfully reflect on what new mission fields and wildernesses the Holy Spirit is steering us into. I thought about this the other day during our inaugural snow storm of the year during Thanksgiving.
I was looking out our back window at our flowering crab where we hang a good number of bird feeders. Lo and behold, I looked up on one of the branches and saw not one, but THREE robins!?!? My curiosity got the best of me, because I had it in my head that robins were migratory birds and they should have migrated south long before now. But, it turns out, robins don’t actually “go south for the winter”. They tend to gather in big flocks, making small migratory trips to find food. That tracks with the need for movement in our lives of faith.
Some bird species need to migrate far distances to feeding grounds, others, like the robin stay put, or venture out for shorter distances. But regardless, we, like the birds, need to move towards wherever the source of nourishment is. For some it’s like my friendly neighborhood nuthatches, chickadees, cardinals and all the woodpeckers, sticking close to home sustained by local food sources. Perhaps similar to those of you who find you are spiritually fed in the privacy of your home in daily reflection and prayer. Some of you may be like the robins, venturing out a bit further, feeling safer and more secure by building and working within local community to find sources of spiritual nourishment and live into your call to mission.
Others still may feel drawn to moving outside of your comfort zone, perhaps into a national or global mission field or ministry, outside of your usual range. Perhaps you’ve migrated away from the area, and have migrated back to retire or to care for aging family. All are meaningful ways to grow in our faith, to engage actively and not stagnate by simply remaining in place.
Whatever your spiritual migratory pattern is, it requires some courage on your part, because change of any kind requires us to consider and challenge the unknown. As the quote from MLK states, we don’t always see the whole staircase, but our faith assures us that we’re moving to places where God is always present. Whether you take baby steps or take steps two at a time, we can lean into the promise that Jesus also was migratory. He migrated to earth in the form of a baby, constantly moving toward the cross in his human life in order for us to be reconciled to God, then returned back “home to heaven” completing a migratory pattern of salvation for us all.
Guided by the Holy Spirit (not coincidentally, often represented by doves which are both migratory and also stay within their residential area over the seasons), we can be assured that our spiritual movement matters in whatever space, distance or time that may be. Think about those birds, if they simply stayed on their favorite branch and didn’t move anywhere, they would get weak and eventually starve, making them easier pray for predators. Likewise, when our spiritual life stagnates and we’re stuck in place, we often find ourselves vulnerable to a predatory Satan along with all the sinful temptations he throws our way.
Monty and I wish you all the very best in this upcoming year. We pray that wherever your spiritual migration leads you, you find nourishment, comfort and rest and every other good thing we receive through the gift of Grace from God in the birth, death and resurrection of Christ, made known by the power of the Spirit. Wishing you a very Happy New Year!
God’s Peace,
Pastor Julie
Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they
Matthew 6:26 ,