pastor john's Weblog

The summer is winding down, school is back in session, and vacations are coming to an end...endings, those are hard, one of the hardest things we do actually. It is difficult to end somethings, it is something we try and look past, ignore, put off...but nevertheless endings always come.

Herman Hesse called these endings, stages that we progress through step by step. To mature we need to be able and willing to take the next step, whatever that may be so that we can continue to become who we were created to be.

The greatest step, Hesse said, would lead us to new and wider spaces...of course he was talking about death. We know through Jesus that the greatest ending of any of our lives leads us not into oblivion, but into the Kingdom of Heaven. Indeed heaven is a new and wider space than we can even imagine.
Sunday we are going to talk about endings and the fear that grips us when we think about them.

Vacations, or as the English and Irish says, "holidays," are a major focus right now as we get into August. I just want to commend taking time away, even if you aren't planning anything yet, I think it is useful to disconnect so that you can reconnect!
Going away doesn't have to be expensive or extravagant, it can just be a drive up into the mountains, some 35 minutes from us here in Warrenton. It can just be a drive out in the country on a sunny Sunday after church. It can be sitting in your backyard watching the fireflies.
We need time to disconnect, all of us. No one is so important that they can not take a little time off.
I am going to be talking this Sunday about the value of disconnection. Next week will be about the opposite connection! You see there is a season for everything :)