Over the past few months I feel like I have been spending a lot of time looking in the rear view mirror. I have been looking back on all of the amazing experiences that I have had at Lord of Life as your intern for the past two years because what is ahead is frankly scary and unknown. Will I get a call as a pastor? Will the congregation embrace me and my family the same way you all have? What will church look like at this new congregation amid all of the COVID-19 concerns? Who will record ridiculous children’s sermons with me? Looking forward is scary because we don’t know what to expect. So we look into the rear view mirror to see all of the good, comforting memories that bring us security, peace, and joy. It is so much easier to wish for what has been, rather than to venture out into the unknown.
I am reminded of the story of the Israelites after they are released and then escape from Pharaoh (Exodus 16). The Israelites were formerly slaves to the Pharaoh and lived under harsh conditions from which they prayed and groaned loudly for God (Yahweh) to rescue them. Once they made it out of Pharaoh’s grasp they were told that Moses would deliver them to their promised land, filled with milk and honey and all of the good things they never had. But if you know the story, after roaming around in the wilderness for a while, surviving on only bits of manna that God provided each day, the Israelites started to look into their rear view mirror. They told Moses that they wish they had never left Pharaoh because of how good they had it there compared to where they were now. Looking forward into the unknown, even with the promise of something great in the future, was still scarier than looking back into the past and wishing for “the good ole days.”
In my own rear view mirror I have been thinking about all of the amazing experiences I have had at Lord of Life, too many to list. Each memory brings a smile to my face and I long for those days to return. But sometimes the rear view mirror plays tricks on us. What is shown in the mirror is not actual reality. In fact, most rear view mirrors even give a warning, “objects in mirror are closer than they appear.” Most often, when we look to the past, we only focus on the good things and forget about the hard times. So of course, it seems like things were better back then when we selectively take out the difficult or traumatic events that occurred during that same time. But, I would argue, those sad times have had just as much of a formational impact on us as the good times and we shouldn’t neglect to remember those as well.
So where am I going with all of this? Lord of Life is moving forward. It is moving forward without me as a pastoral presence. It is moving forward with welcoming a new set of gifts and talents in Intern Alec. It is moving forward by carefully trying to find safe ways for us to worship in person again. It is becoming something new, but is not giving up all of the memories that have brought us to this point. We cannot be scared of the new future of our congregation because God is calling us boldly into that new territory. When times are rough, like they are now, we should also not be too quick to want to rush back to the old ways of doing things, because like Pharaoh, they could present regression disguised as comfort. So keep those memories from the rear view mirror near and dear to your heart, but let’s also keep our eyes on the road ahead of us as we seek to “live, share, and celebrate, with all people, God’s love in Jesus Christ” in new and exciting ways.
Always with you in the rear view,
Pastor Corey