Devotional 12-1-08

This has been a year of big decisions and new beginnings for Joe and me. Should we leave our home in Salisbury, North Carolina, my home town, where we had lived for 19 years, and move back to West Virginia, my adopted state, where Joe and I had lived throughout his ministry? (When we told our Sunday school class that we were going back to West Virginia, one man said, “I never heard of anyone moving BACK to West Virginia!)

We had a list of reasons to stay and to leave. It seemed as if we were being led to move. When we found a buyer for our house in only one week, Providence seemed to be speaking to us. We trust that we have made the right decision. In the book friends gave us before we left, The Five Things We Cannot Change and the Happiness We Find by Embracing Them, by David Richo, the author writes about the givens of life. The first is: Everything Changes and Ends. I think that we all need to accept that fact and to look forward in faith to whatever the future holds for us.

We are blessed to have Johnson Memorial as our new church home. We visited a number of churches and were welcomed wholeheartedly. I felt led to join JM. (Of course, Joe’s church membership is in the Annual Conference.) I like this church! I like the vision and mission statements that I believe are revealing of this church’s spirit. I like the morning worship and the music. I have had the feeling that God is moving here. I want to be a part.

Advent is a time for a new beginning and for spiritual renewal as we look forward to the birth of Christ. I look forward especially to this Advent season in our new church home. And I pray for God’s blessings on this church as we earnestly seek to follow Jesus this season and throughout the year.

“Redeemer, come, with us abide;
our hearts to thee we open wide;
Let us thy inner presence feel;
Thy grace and love in us reveal."
-- Georg Weisel, 1642

Martha Casey