“Arise! Arise! Arise and shine! May Christ’s
message of eternal life fill your heart with everlasting love, hope, happiness
and new dreams.” ~ Lailah
Gifty Akita
Upon returning from vacation recently
I unlocked the office door, breathed deeply, and prepared to wade in to texts
and emails and phone calls. Even from outside the office I could hear the phone
message alert going off.
Well, that seemed like as good
a place as any to start so I hit the message button -- and chuckled upon
hearing a message from Bruce Smith. He writes for the Cascades Presbytery (our
regional group of 96 Presbyterian churches mostly in Oregon) newsletter and
covers Central Oregon churches.
He wanted to know how PPC’s
building program was going. In thinking about my response the first thought
that came to mind was a single word: ‘COVID.’ Our Future Facilities teams had
interviewed two general contractors when – COVID.
As Oxford Dictionary defines
it, COVID is a noun: “a statement, fact, or situation
that tells you why something happened;“ yet how COVID has changed our lives
and related actions during these past two years makes it feel more like a verb
(action-word).
COVID has become this broadly
ambiguous yet clearly understood umbrella term to explain all things odd and
changing and suspended and undone over the last two years.
However now with Easter having
provided an end-date to COVID (at least currently) and our lives once again
find stability, we want to remember that while the Cross brought an end to
Jesus’ earthly life, His resurrection signaled the start of God’s new season.
And on that first Easter, as the
disciples’ joy and astonishment was quickly replaced by anxiety and doubt -- they
retreated…until Jesus reminded them that there was more to His story…and in
commissioning the disciples Jesus was counting on them to step up and step out
in telling it.
So how will we respond? We hope you would join our response.
As we look to the rest of the
‘post-COVID’ year ahead, and PPC’s future long beyond that; I pray that we all
will step up in faith and consider stepping out into new roles in telling all
about God’s unfolding story.
Together
We Serve,
Pastor Mike