Goodness Weekly 02.12.24
“Hope and Fear sit on a see-saw and neither one knows what will happen next.”
—Kat Lehman
What’s Good
Loving our neighbors well this week looks like Valentine’s Day cards and treats at One Another Coffee. Treat someone you love with one of these beautiful cards for FREE with the purchase of Weathered Hands coffee and a One Another gift card.
A Message from Jess
Jess Lowry, Executive Director, Sunset Ridge Collective
97 days ago my body shut down.
I was tested for stroke, for adrenal failure, for heart issues. No answers came. “It may be MS,” one doctor said. “It’s simply that your body has endured too much stress," claimed another.
I began to wonder if it was all in my head.
Regardless, for the past three months my life has been primarily confined to the walls of my house, being driven around by friends and family to appointments. On good days I might take a walk, or attend my sons’ basketball games—a far cry from life as I’ve been living it.
I’ve wailed, I’ve yelled, I’ve sobbed, I’ve questioned. I’ve sat in the dark silence for hours, turned days, turned months.
On a sunny day drive, we arrived at Arnosky Flower Farm, one of my favorite places to go when I need some time to decompress and a favorite day trip for my daughter Shiloh and I. We were excited to see whatever glimmer of beauty might be in store for us that day as we had so many times before. And yet all we saw was soil.
In the moment there wasn’t disappointment in my heart, but instead the realization that I was in the same place as this flower farm. In a time of dormancy, a time of preparation…for the beauty that was to come.
In our Sunday night Parent Group we are reading Every Season Sacred by Kayla Craig, last week’s reflection was “Mourning into Dancing.” In the chapter the author quoted pastor Mandy Smith saying, “We dance for what is to come. We dance for what we believe God is doing, even if we can’t see it. And somehow, that actually helps make it possible.”
I live that daily now—the dancing part. Still not physically well, but more whole in heart and spirit with an understanding that this time has gifted me the chance to be stripped of all of the things that I clung tightly to—my independence, resilience, strength, and self-sufficiency. To come to a place where I am dependent, where I am still, where I am clearer about my worth and value outside of anything I do.
This year the season of Lent will begin on Valentine’s Day. What a beautiful thing—to hold Lent in hand with a theme of love. May this season of Lent be a time that we are being loved into reflection, stillness, and silence.
May we allow ourselves to be stripped of the things that hinder us from living in wholeness, no matter how uncomfortable or hard they are. May we have courage to stay in the discomfort to see what there is for us to learn instead of numbing out or running away.
May we be people who can sit in the darkness holding onto hope, regardless of our circumstance. May our quieter, simpler posture of living open us up to a more saturated presence in the world around us.
This Week
Sunday, Feb 18th, 4:30pm Music-centered Worship (on the front lawn weather permitting)
6pm Parent Book Club–Every Season Sacred by Kayla Craig
6pm Youth Group
Upcoming…
Sunday, Feb 25th
4:30pm Chapel Worship
6pm Parent Book Club–Every Season Sacred by Kayla Craig
6pm Youth Group
Inhale:
Even as I carry the weight of being human
Exhale:
I can trust that there is good to be found here
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