It has been such a good week. Annual Conference this year was incredibly inspiring, culminating in a special, powerful moment of prayer when all of us pastors are officially commissioned and sent forth into our new ministries for the year. Then, the very next day, we were all in worship together here at Epworth UMC! Thank you for your gracious welcome, and an OUTSTANDING pot luck lunch. In the days since, I have been so blessed to sit and talk with a few of you, to pop in at Fallon Daily Bread (honestly, such an inspiring ministry), and begin to get settled into a new routine. I am really looking forward to getting to know all of you, and doing this unique and wonderful thing called "church" together.
This summer -- growing season that it is -- we will be exploring together the "fruits of the Spirit" in Galatians 5:22-23. I'll let you go to your Bible to read what they are, if you don't already know. Or, if you don't happen to have a bible handy, you might like to try www.biblegateway.com and look it up there. It's a great resource, with almost every imaginable translation available. Each week, as we go through the fruits of the Spirit one by one, I will write a little something here on this blog to get you thinking; then, once I get a better handle on our meeting schedule during the week, I will set a time where we can get together and talk about your own thoughts about the week's topic. Stay tuned!
Here's the thing about fruits of any kind, and fruits of the Spirit in particular: they take time, and a particular set of steps to produce them. So, since Jesus used growing and farming metaphors so often in his teaching, I've decided to speak to some local farmers to hear about how they do their work, and what that work can tell us about living a fruitful life. In my own attempts at amateur home gardening, what I do know is this: before we do anything else, we have to prepare the ground.
In our spiritual life, too, we have to get our hands dirty. We have to pull weeds, dig out rocks and roots and any obstacle to good, healthy growth. It is hard work, maybe the hardest work of the whole process. Thankfully, we have a God who loves us beyond measure, who lends us the strength to do it. As you consider the rocks and weeds and obstacles in your own life, you might like to read about how Jesus helped Peter with his in John 21:15-17.
Fruits of the Spirit are great things. They are gifts we receive, that make our lives more full and rich and meaningful; they are qualities produced in us when we join our lives with Christ's, that make us more Christ-like; and they are gifts that we give back to the world, sharing the joy we have found and planting seeds that grow to become more fruit. Galatians lists 9 of them. The first one, the one that undergirds everything else, is love.
In the endless love of God,
Pastor Dawn
