Summer Worship Series: New Beginnings
This summer, we learn more about the faith lives of our members as they reflect on what it means to embark on new beginnings.
“Morning by morning, new mercies I see,” is a line we lovingly sing from the old hymn “Great is Thy Faithfulness.” It echoes these words from Lamentations 3:
Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
for God’s compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
Each day we’re given a new beginning. Sometimes, however, we’re not willing, ready or able to embrace it. So what does it mean to commit ourselves to living into this ever-renewing possibility, even if we don’t feel like it?
This Sunday, Adam S. closes out our summer series of New Beginnings. Many of you know that since the beginning days of the pandemic, Adam has faithfully led a weekly online Zoom meditation and created a devoted sangha of parishioners starting their Wednesday morning with a faithful, still, breath-centered beginning.
For this Sunday, he writes;
Amidst and within the larger transition points and pivotal new beginnings, there is also the daily invitation to start again, fresh and feeling, ready to surrender to the day unfolding. This is the new beginning I know lies at the heart of my own spiritual renewal, and the way I’m able to remember that God is indeed in the stillness, and the breath, and the warm summer sun.
Heading towards 60, sometimes sailing, sometimes struggling, I’m learning that the steps to moving from seeking to being are simple indeed: Stop, get Still, and Surrender. Steps that are simple for sure, but rarely easy to practice daily. Prayer, meditation, song…all help to create the opportunity to remember, but surrendering …giving in and up to the God of our understanding, and taking it one day and one breath at a time, is the path that is working for me.
Adam will also sing as part of his Sunday offering, which many of you already know is a great treat.
I invite you to commit to a new beginning this Sunday morning and join us in stopping, getting still and surrendering. You’ll be grateful you did.
In faith,
Kent
NOTE: Worship will NOT be live-streamed this Sunday, but will be available on YouTube Sunday afternoon, as we continue to troubleshoot and tweak our sound system and orient our new Media Producers.
Image credit: Photo by Kent French, Sunrise over Provincetown Harbor, April 6, 2021
