Five months have flown by and I definitely feel like I have grown so much over the initial months as Rector. I feel very blessed to be here and to share and grow together, even though it is very busy at times. It is great to have the opportunity to get to know people and especially in small groups. I have enjoyed our time in the Bible Study and I hope that participants did also, we laughed, we talked and shared and grew together.
It has been a great pleasure working alongside our ministry team and for their support, dedication and prayers I am deeply grateful. Thank you also to the people of the parish for your their encouragement, your challenge, love, support and trust.
There has been a word that has been very much on my heart and mind in recent months and it is SURRENDER.
Power and powerlessness will be the theme for Easter in our parish and we are very much confronted with both experiences in the re-telling of the passion story. Jesus knew surrender, in his life. He lived a paradox of power and powerlessness, depending on how we see Jesus and indeed how we see power. God choose to reveal Himself in a tiny little baby and Jesus grew up to actually live as the king but, a different kind of KING . Where others would have welded their power Jesus chose to SURRENDER, to surrender to His Father’s will, to be willing to die so that we could be free. Free to worship, liberated from sin and shame.
Lent and Easter drives home to us where in fact, the real power lies and it is in surrender. Surrender to the will of God for our lives even when it involves sacrifice and even some hard choices. Jesus still is the tender shepherd that my mother taught us about when I was a child. He is the one who gives power to the weak. He is the one who sees beyond our weakness and mistakes and brings new beginnings, new power and desire to be all that He has called us to be. Our parish needs your gifts and talents, your time, your humour, your joy and your heart for God. Let me encourage you to surrender the things that cause us to feel shackled in the past and take up the baton and run the race, together. Lets continue to look after each other. Remember how people saw how the believers loved one another and were attracted to Jesus, well lets.
Every Blessing
Diane
The decision to grow always involves a choice between risk and comfort. This means that to be a follower of Jesus you must renounce comfort as the ultimate value of your life.
(John Ortberg)