Pastors’ Ponderings
Kimberly P Chastain, Pastor
Dear Ones,
I have been singing the Thomas A. Dorsey hymn “Take My Hand, Precious Lord” all day:
I am tired, I am weak, I am worn…
Through the storm, through the night, lead me on to the light,
Take my hand, precious Lord—lead me home!
It’s not so much that I am feeling that way personally, but I have been listening to stories. This is the 3rd time I have started to write this letter to you, and every time I get interrupted, I hear more stories about people feeling anxious and afraid. I have heard about financial issues, mental health, physical health, transportation, global problems, local problems… the list goes on and on. We are a community of helpers who are awash in grief for those we cannot help, and afraid because the problems seem so huge and our resources so small.
As it turns out, the interruptions have made the letter I had planned to write seem kind of trite. The theme was (as it still is) about the constant reminder that is a kind of refrain throughout the bible, “Do not be afraid.” Those words occur whenever God calls an individual or a people into a new place, ministry, or community. There’s a pious myth that they appear 365 times in the bible, once for every day of the year—but like many pious myths, that’s an exaggeration. However, it is repeated enough that it’s clear both that humans are afraid quite often, and that God’s will for us is that we find rest and comfort in God, even when times are hard, even when we are feeling the shockwaves of rapid upheaval in our personal lives and in our world.
There’s another phrase that resounds in the stories where God calls to people that might be even more important for these times, and it’s the promise that “I will be with you, and I will be your God.” No matter how hard things seem, or how helpless we feel, God does not leave us alone.
In one of my favorite stories, when God calls Moses to lead the people out of slavery, Moses argues and pleads and confesses that he doesn’t feel adequate to do the work. Finally he asks, “Can’t you get someone else?” And God offers him a companion, his brother Aaron, who will work with him and speak for him when Moses finds his words or his courage failing. God does not require that we work alone, or beyond our limits. God calls us to work together, and to be faithful—and God promises to be faithful to us, as well.
In the first letter to the Corinthians, Paul writes, “Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong…” (1 Cor. 1:26)
I believe that the God who calls us knows our strengths and our weaknesses and loves us beyond measure, and does not require us to do it all alone. We have companions on the way, the witness of the church throughout the ages, and the testimony of scripture to give us strength for the journey. And we can rest in those promises even when we can’t see the end of the road.
I wish I could give you all complete freedom from fear, and enough rest and assurance to overcome the anxiety and the grief. I’m among the foolish and weak that Paul is writing about, so I don’t have the answers that I want to give you. But I will be with you, and more importantly, God will be with you through it all.
Thanks be to God.
Grace and Peace,
Pastor Kimberly
Becky Kindig, Associate Pastor
Greetings friends!
We’ve had a wonderful Easter and it has been a great spring. It was so good to see so many of you at Easter worship and our annual Easter Egg hunt with the kids was such fun! I hope you all are doing well and enjoying what springtime brings for you.
This spring I traveled on a plane for the first time since Covid and with a wheelchair. Being home for so long, I was very nervous of all the things I have been hearing on the news or on social media, or from friends and colleagues about all the negative interactions they have had with people while flying. I heard horror stories about people who feel more emboldened to want their own way instead of understanding that their actions impact other people. Plus I know that many employees are stressed from the understaffing and from some people’s bad behavior. I also read that many many wheelchairs get damaged on airplanes due to mishandling. So I was nervous.
But I also knew that it was time to get further out into the world again and reconnect with people. I’ve been a little slower to get back out there because the doctors wanted me to be careful with my immune-compromised status. But the precautions I take seem to be working well, so seeing Scott’s family in North Carolina seemed like a good way to start. Phone calls and Zoom sessions are nice, but actually being in the same room with people, playing with my niece and nephew, and spending more time than a phone call gives is so important. Spending time with people you love is good for you.
And it seems that reconnecting with people is becoming more important. Just this past week, the Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy released a new advisory on the epidemic of loneliness in this country and is calling for all of us to find ways to prioritize building social connections (1). And while Covid certainly didn’t help, he points out that the trend of loneliness and isolation was building before the pandemic. So it is important that we take care of ourselves and others in our family and community by finding ways to connect with others and strengthen relationships.
So we took the plunge, took our masks and hand sanitizer and we went. We had a lovely visit! It was good to check on how my mother-in-law was healing from her rotator cuff surgery and to gently remind her that it is very important to continue her physical therapy. It was good to chat with my father-in-law and it was so fun to get to take my niece and nephew to the North Carolina Zoo.
But what surprised me was how many nice people I encountered on the way. All of the horror stories about entitled people yelling at others, grumpy airline staff, and uncaring crowds were not to be found in my travels. In fact, it was just the opposite. People seemed to be making an extra effort to be kind. And at first I thought that maybe the airlines had put in some extra training and this was just a staff thing. But I seemed to find it everywhere. People in line at security, people waiting for their flight, people on the plane. So then I thought, oh well maybe it is the wheelchair. Maybe people are being nice to me because of that. Which is lovely, we need to be nice to people who are differently abled in this country. But as I waited for a flight, or as we walked around at the zoo, or when we were waiting in line at a store, I began to people-watch and I noticed people being nice to each other, not just me. Someone dropped their ticket walking in the airport and someone behind them took the time to pick it up and catch them to give it back. People holding doors for someone with a stroller. People overhearing someone having trouble with the zoo map and offering directions. It seemed to be everywhere and I was pleasantly surprised. After being stuck home for so long, and hearing about what an angry world it was becoming, it was refreshing to see that kindness is still alive and well in the world. It just doesn’t make the news.
So I’m glad that I can travel again, even with my new challenges. And I am refreshed by my visit and by what I experienced along the way. And I hope that as we move into summer that we can all find ways to reconnect with friends and family or make new connections and relationships that will be life giving for everyone. Call a friend you haven't talked with in while. Send a note to someone you haven’t seen in church for a while. Invite someone on a walk to to get ice cream who hasn’t been out of the house much. Or take that trip to see family. God created us to thrive in community, we need each other. And as people of God, we need to be in the world spreading love as we go so the whole world can feel it because it is desperately needed right now.
Grace and Peace,
Pastor Becky