A Week of Preparation
Hello LaSalle Fam!
It has been delightful to be in the office in person this week and to anticipate seeing many of you in person this Sunday at church! As the summer winds down, this season is obviously one of preparation - for back to school rhythms, for back to work schedules after (hopefully) some time off, for the weather to shift (please God, help it shift!), many of us are in preparation mode.
Preparation - leaving what was known and getting supplies together for what is to come. Preparation - leaving what is comfortable and starting an adventure toward what’s unknown.
Preparation - knowing in your bones you are ready for more, for different, for deeper, but not always being sure what it is, how to get there, or if it’s even safe to hope or want for more.
Preparation is an oft-repeated theme in Scripture, usually when God’s people are asked to go somewhere new, try something different, leave their land, or people, or name, or family, and strike out in faith to go toward the More of God. More - life. More - liberation. More - territory. More - trust. More - need for God. More - dependency on prayer. More - walking by the Spirit, not by sight. More - delight and joy and peace. More - than enough. Preparation precedes More, and preparation gets us ready - not to know, control, or conquer - but to become, to walk, to journey, to grow.
What Scriptures come to mind for you when you consider these movements - preparation, leaving, growing, gathering up what is needed, listening for where God is moving and calling? What is stirred in you - where do you sense God shifting, encouraging, speaking?
Our family is preparing - our new home, for new schools, for new grocery runs and dog groomers and finding new Boba tea shops! In this preparation phase we know that we’ve left something familiar, and we even still feel the grief that leaving contains; co-mingled with the feelings of what we’re letting go, we also have anticipation and excitement in the preparation for what’s next, what is more, and what could be even better.
As you and yours prepare for this season of your own lives, as LaSalle prepares for the fall and gathering together in some new worship rhythms, as we prepare for kids and youth and college students to go back to school and making transitions, as we all walk toward God’s leading in this season - let’s cover this whole preparation time in prayer. We can never grow further than the ground that we’ve prepared in prayer. We can never go deeper than the depths that we’ve already made room for in prayer and listening with the Holy Spirit. We can’t move until we’ve been filled and given direction by our good and loving God on where to go! This fall we will be focusing on prayer together LaSalle, through Sabbath Sundays, through an adult formation class, and in worship together as well - if you feel called to learn more about prayer, or are gifted in praying and interceding, let the office know.
Preparation, church - together, we get to listen to where God is calling us, gather up our tools, and encourage one another toward what is more, what is next. It can be scary and exhilarating all at once - the both/and of being church together, the both/and of growth! I am already praying for you, for us, and asking you to pray for me and our call toward the future that God’s preparing us for.
With deep thanks, relying on the One who is able to do immeasurably more than all we could ask or imagine, according to the power that is at work within us - Rev. Liz