“To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven:

A time to be born, And a time to die;
A time to plant, And a time to pluck what is planted

My husband recently stepped down from his pastorate of 17 years.  When we arrived, our children were 11, 11 and 9 years old. This church has seen us raising young children, they were there when they got their first cars. They saw our children off to college, saw them married…. They were with Michael and I when we became “empty-nesters”.  They were with us when we lost a parent. They were with us when we became grandparents.  We were together through CoVid (it has to be said, it was such an epoch for all of us, right?). We were with them for the same seasons of their lives.  Births, weddings, healings, funerals…. Michael likes to call it the “hatching, patching, matching and dispatching”, and I smile every time he says it this way.  So true.  Comfort in that continuity of life.  Comfort in the people who became ours during these years.  Comfort in the faithfulness of the Lord through it all.

A time to kill,
And a time to heal;
A time to break down,
And a time to build up;

A time to weep,
And a time to laugh;
A time to mourn,
And a time to dance;

A time to cast away stones,
And a time to gather stones;
A time to embrace,
And a time to refrain from embracing;

Professionally, lots of life as well.  This church was small when we came, hurting. Lots of debt.  Lots of past due bills.  Lots of weeks wondering if we would make the power bill, let alone payroll. We dug deep and trusted God – we remembered that He loved His church more than we did, and we became confident again. (And again. And again.  Some prayers are not a “one and done” – sometimes you have to press in and press in and press in….). Slow and steady, change came.  People came. Finances came.  Power bills and payroll were no longer a worry.  The church became debt free and healthy. Long hours and sleepless nights, sweat and tears, and those people who were ours stood with us and worked with us. We rejoiced in the blessing of obedience together, realizing this was truly a “look what the Lord has done” season.

A time to gain,
And a time to lose;
A time to keep,
And a time to throw away;

A time to tear,
And a time to sew;
A time to keep silence,
And a time to speak;

A time to love,
And a time to hate;
A time of war,
And a time of peace.

To be honest, when Michael decided on a new adventure, I wanted to hang on to the old. I couldn’t imagine anything better than the place we were at – the place we had worked so hard to arrive at. It sounds so easy and neatly packaged into the two paragraphs above – it wasn’t! However, I remembered God’s faithfulness in past moves. We had served churches before and moved before. I remembered that as the Lord is preparing us for a new adventure, He is also simultaneously preparing our church family for a new adventure, simultaneously preparing their next pastor for a new adventure, and so on.  

What profit has the worker from that in which he labors? I have seen the God-given task with which the sons of men are to be occupied. He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.

I know that nothing is better for them than to rejoice, and to do good in their lives, and also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor—it is the gift of God.

I rejoiced in today, this specific day: I realized that we were ending in a time to gain, a time to keep, a time to sew, a time to love, and a time of peace. We had experienced the valleys and hardships, and God in His great generosity and kindness was allowing us to end on the mountaintop. From this viewpoint, we could see that this “time to sew” resulted in a beautiful tapestry, a legacy that will last in our hearts forever. 

I know that whatever God does,
It shall be forever.
Nothing can be added to it,
And nothing taken from it.
God does it, that men should fear before Him.

Peoples Church, you were a gift to me from the Lord, to be held lightly in an open hand. God did it, and we honor Him in the work. Today, you are the treasure. Thank you ❤

That which is has already been,
And what is to be has already been;
And God requires an account of what is past.”

Ecclesiastes 3 NKJV

Friend, let’s come together again next week! I’m excited to connect with you in this way again!