I don’t remember when it last happened, but one of the gifts of living in the Midwest is knowing that it is possible to experience all four seasons within a week’s time. The AC runs at full tilt on Monday, and by Thursday, the furnace is roaring away. In between, we can crack open the windows and bask in the warm breeze of spring before noticing the slight chill of an autumn day.
I’ve recently spent two days learning alongside Missouri United Methodist ministry colleagues. A workshop choice, “Seasons of the Soul,” drew connections between the changes and transitions of our lives and spirits to nature’s seasons. Fall can bring melancholy and a sense of foreboding. Winter is a time of letting go and grieving. Spring brings renewal, and summer is a celebration of abundance.
As the workshop ended, the facilitator asked us to stand and identify the season in which we were living. A pastor sitting across from me and I agreed: We are living in all of them. At this moment, elements of our lives and spirits may simultaneously be about melancholy, grief, renewal, and abundance.
The same is true for our faith family. Grace United Methodist Church is finding its way through some big transitions that have stirred up some big feelings. We don’t know how this experience of sharing space with an emerging congregation will play out. Uncertainty can lead to foreboding as much as a sense of renewal. Change, even for the best of reasons, comes with loss. Our abundance of space and a desire to offer a wide embrace to our neighbors are worthy of celebration.
I’m grateful for my time in Columbia, Missouri, this month. I find opportunities to learn and reflect in a group setting to be life-giving. Even so, Grace and our church family were never far from mind. I’m also wondering what season of the soul you think you are experiencing these days. The question, I believe, goes beyond what is happening at Grace. It is, perhaps, another way to ask the one our tradition teaches. “How is it with your soul today?”
Peace,
Pastor Linda
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