July/August 2010
Dear Friends,
I have such a mixture of emotions as I write this final article for our newsletter...thankfulness, sadness, gratitude, loss and underneath a small glimmer of excitement as I look forward to what lies ahead. It is also almost impossible to find the right words to say as I prepare to leave and say goodbye. So I am going to use the words of someone else because they express so well what I am feeling and what I want to express. These words were given to me by my Spiritual Director who has been walking alongside me over the last two years and is someone I have been able to share with about the process of stationing, moving and having to say goodbye. Someone once said that if your first appointment is a positive experience it is often the hardest one to move from. I won’t know how true this is until I move again, but I know that in this appointment and with the church at Hallam I have begun to grow into the minister that God has called me to be and I have been alongside some wonderful, faithful, loving, caring, spiritual people. The article talks about ‘roots’ and ‘wings’ so I want to say thank you for enabling me to put down ‘roots’ with you but also ‘roots’ with Christ and the ‘roots’ of my ministry. But thank you also for giving me the ‘wings’ to fly, the ‘wings’ to fly as a minister and also to fly spiritually and the ‘wings’ to fly to where God is calling me next. The article is called ‘Incarnation’ from the ‘Diary of Being Human.’
‘Goodbyes had been the most difficult moments of my life until Paul blessed me with his vision in Galatians 2:20, “And I live now not with my own life but with the life of Christ who lives in me”. I wind in and out of people’s lives. Having touched them I am blessed. Having touched me, they are blessed. Our roots are deepened. Our wings are strengthened. We have given each other grace to live more deeply. We have, indeed, become a part of one another in the Body of Christ. It is incarnation all over again. And then the war begins, that beautiful war between my roots and my wings. It feels as though my feet are in two worlds. It hurts. I look at all the people I love. I know the day will come when I must celebrate goodbye with them as I already have with so many others.
And yet I am grafted into the Body of Christ. I never knew it could be so intimately until I was startled by the new vision. I live now, not I, but my friends live on in me. You, my friends will always be part of me, for you were present during so much of my unfolding. My goodbye to you says that you’ve given me enough roots to use my wings. Still, this parting remains a struggle, this war between my roots and my wings.
When we fall into each other’s lives our roots say: Stay! Set up your tent! Be at home here! Our wings say: Continue your journey! Don’t get root bound, keep dreaming of something beyond!
When you love someone you have to let them go. It’s the only way to keep them. Weaving in and out of lives I’ve come to know the letting go as the surrender in that war between my roots and my wings. It is blessing, it is grace, it is victory, it is pain.’
Every Blessing to all of you, now and always,
Sue