Are you ready to jump into the future?
I’m ready to move forward. Not moving backwards to how things were before the pandemic, but forward. Forward in faith to life how it is today, not how it used to be. Forward into the current struggles we’re all going through, the challenges we’re facing, and, yes, the real hope for new life I see through the thick of it all.
We’re going through a time people are calling “The Great Resignation.” Is it because many of us in our society are realizing that what we were doing before wasn’t working anyway? Or that we’re just plain worn out? Or we’re feeling apathetic? Or that we’ve somehow changed over these last two years and we’re discovering new things that fit our new shape (Maybe bigger clothes because of all the comfort pizza we ate! Or did we change in more profound ways?) Or is it because we see new possibilities for a new day?
All of the above, I think.
In a big, messy pile.
Once upon a time, Max Lucado wrote a little book called On the Anvil in which he likened being formed by God not as a gentle potter-and-clay image, but God as a blacksmith: a blacksmith taking a broken tool, thrusting it into the fire so it is malleable, laying it on the anvil and hammering away, then plunging it into water, now shaped and useful for its owner’s purpose. I would say we’ve all been through an “anvil time.” I think we’re still in it. A painful time. But one that—if we are open to it, if we allow it—will place us in God’s hands, reformed for God’s purpose in the future God has in store. I for one can’t wait to see how God will use us to love and serve our community in the coming year!
You are invited to be part of God’s future for Esperanza and through Esperanza. This Sunday, November 21, is Pledge Sunday and you have an opportunity to do your part in shaping us into a useful vessel that God will use in the coming year. When you pledge your dollars to Esperanza’s general fund, you make us strong and enable ministry to happen across the board. When we don’t have to worry about how bills will be paid, we can direct 100% of our energy to the joy of loving our neighbor. Jesus tells us not to worry (Matthew 6) because God provides. And God provides, in part, through you. Your dollars allow Esperanza to be ready and raring to go wherever God calls.
Be part of the future of ministry, of new life, of hope.
Hope Grows Here!
God’s peace and grace to you this day,
Pastor Annemarie