Times of Discernment and Visioning

Another year has begun and many of us have probably made some resolutions about what we'd like to do different this year.  Likewise we start our new year as a church looking at what we may do different this year and in the future.  Much like our personal resolutions, these changes are not to change who we are at our core, but things that we hope will improve ourselves and in turn the world around us. 

The thing with change though is that we often try a number of things before we find the way to actually make a change that works for us.  Sometimes we're not even completely sure what it is that we need to adjust in order to make the changes we feel we want to make.  This is where the work of discernment plays out both for us personally and as a congregation.  If we just make changes without thinking about why and how we're going about changing we often find ourselves unable to become what we really want to be.  Changes don't stick, or have side effects we didn't anticipate. 

When we take the time to really make a plan and a commitment to something we're truly are passionate about though, we become quite able to do things that maybe we thought were impossible, or at very least frighteningly imposing when we first considered them.  Taking time to really examine ourselves, being completely honest with ourselves, and even looking beyond ourselves is something that is scary but necessary if we want to be the best we can be.  It is not just a product of hard work at getting to our desired end result but also of the hard work of really understanding what we want that end result to be, and in the case of the church as it should be in our own lives what that end result that is that God wishes for us.  It is when we passionately seek to better understand God's will above our own that we are most in line with what it is that God wants from us.

We must continually seek God in order to see where we are going, but remembering that we are following a lamp unto our feet with every step.  This is not a process of quickly moving towards a bright light, but a slow progress, step by step together relying on one another and that dim reflection we see of God in the world.  May we all move forward this year yearning to discern that which God wants for us, and clinging to a vision yet unkown.

Amen.