How Do You Want to Be Remembered?
Posted on Apr 01, 2021 by Cyntha Schnaath
"I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
— John 13:34-35
I have served about 18 months as interim pastor for Salem Lutheran Church. I was excited when I began to be working with a staff of four! I was going to be involved in planning worship that included a contemporary service. I brought new ideas to Salem like the Epiphany stars!
Then things changed. Staff changed, the pandemic brought changes to our worship lives, I stepped up helping with Pantry Pack, we moved out of our buildings into a smaller space, and yet I felt God’s amazing presence through it all. Although there were many challenging days, difficult conversations, and growing edges, there were also moments of forgiving each other, learning new skills so we could stay connected, and lots of praying, and we were able to move forward as siblings of God.
So, I am hoping that I will be remembered not as the interim pastor who helped us through COVID-19, but the interim pastor who helped us through transitions we may have never imaged, and we did it together. Because we lived out the commandment given to us by Jesus “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you.” Because it is in loving one another, seeing the Christ in you and you seeing the Christ in me, that the love of God wins.
I close with this prayer that I have used several times in my teaching and preaching as interim pastor.
O God, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending,
by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown.
Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go, but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Pastor Cynthia