Turning Toward
Posted on Mar 07, 2018 by
Dear Salem Family,
This will be my last letter to you as staff here at Salem. So, I thought I’d leave you with a challenge.
There are many changes that will be happening for Salem in the next couple of months. Change is scary. Change is hard. And turning toward what’s hard and scary and vulnerable is not usually our default choice. We often spend all kinds of time trying to avoid our fears. But what if we put our energy in to walking toward it with an open and willing heart?
Will it be easy? No. Will it get easier? Maybe. Will it be worth it? I’d place a pretty heavy bet that it will.
Walking into change with an open heart may present so many amazing opportunities for an already amazing community to do some pretty amazing things. Does it mean we might have to let go of some things? Yes. Does it mean a little more hard work? Yes.
God does not ever promise that we won’t struggle. In John 12:27-28 it says, “Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name!” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.”
God will be there with us in the struggle. This is the promise. But, we have to do the work. We have to turn toward change, be vulnerable in the struggle. We have to walk through change as a community, lean on God and lean on each other as we put energy in to the things we are fearful of, whatever those things may be.
I will leave you with this. Brené Brown said this, “Only when we are brave enough to explore the darkness will we discover the infinite power of our light.”
Sometimes we need to explore the darkness, live in the struggle and walk through it. Then, let the light shine.
In Christ’s Love,
Meghan Myers
Director of Adult Ministries and Outreach