Words of encouragement and support for those ministering "in the fields."

My acupuncturist advised me to eat more cooked vegetables and have more fun. Ron Buford informed me that “60 is the new 40.” So many of you took the time to extend greetings and encouragement to me on this landmark birthday. Thank you so much.

The first week of my 7th decade was intense and wild. Frantic phoning and email messaging. Humungo concerns over a multitude of church issues and crises. Deadlines. Sifting and resifting of the implications, applications, intentions, apprehensions and complexities of various people and agencies. Reminders of my own shortcomings accumulated in disturbingly untidy heaps. My frustration and exhaustion threatened to meld into toxic compounds. And then it arrived, at 4:07 a.m. PST in room 403 of the Radisson Gateway hotel in Cleveland. Unexpected as always, this time it lay quietly and breathed softly at the foot of a message from Board of Directors Treasurer and gentle sage, John Meermans. After paragraphs of factual information John concluded the report on his research with the observation that, based on all this data and evidence of commitment and integrity, we might want to extend a little leniency to a certain individual for words the person had written in haste. John wrote, “As Stephen Convey suggests, ‘seek first to understand and then to be understood.’” I think Francis of Assisi said it earlier, but no matter. The message was clear. Mercy. Grace.

I’ve been actively and repeatedly learning grace for 60 years now. I’ve discovered and rediscovered that grace benignly stalks us and beneficently sets out traps for us. That grace marks the tangy transcendence of power into justice and justice into love when a community of faith bumbles and yearns its way into a future where failure is redeemed, hope is restored, and new possibilities streak through the heavens well out of reach of the mud of discouragement. That grace visits us, infuses us, and dispels our bumbling awkwardness, when we move with faith and trust, gliding with the music of the spheres, dancing without looking at our feet. But I just don’t seem to retain what I’ve learned. I need memos, follow-ups, reminders, little beeps from my computer (if I could get that particular function to work), or a paperback Grace for Dummies.

Which is why I was so grateful for that email message from John. Which is why I am so grateful for this great congregation, this cloud of witnesses in this church that holds me close, revs me up, and calms me down. You are bearers of grace for me. We are bearers of grace for one another.

As I was reminded during that wild intense week, to be a Conference Minister in the early 21st Century is to be laden with expectations, humbled with blessings, flooded with responsibilities, needful of mercy. This is the commitment I make to you for the years ahead in our mutual ministry:

• To do my absolute and creative best in all I embark upon, in a spirit of service to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
• To speak the truth as I discern it, and witness to justice, compassion, grace, and reconciliation.
• To relentlessly sort through the multitude of tasks, opportunities, and demands which present themselves daily and determine, to the extent of my ability, which need immediate attention for the good of church.
• To acknowledge that my efforts may at times fall short, and that my human limitations will constrain me from undertaking and accomplishing all that I desire or all that others expect.

                                                                                                          ~ Mary Susan

Your comments are welcome
Send to msgast@ncncucc.org