The intersecting of lives

Dear friends,

One of the things I enjoy most as a pastor is when I see people who have met at our church develop bonds and relationships outside the confines of our fence.  Of course sometimes people have crossed paths before and seeing them renew their acquaintances and strengthen them is also very meaningful.  In any case I am happy to see that our humble church campus becomes the venue for the intersecting of lives and sometimes these lives converge for a while and go in the same direction. There is energy in these intersections and God can work mysteriously in them.  It always strikes me how much they are out of pastoral control. They just happen.  In fact, except for those who have committed themselves to coffee hour or parking or PA duty or piano playing or Sunday school, none of those who will come this Sunday are guaranteed to be there, although some are quite probable attendees. Also we never know which new person might blow in on any given Sunday.  This intersecting of lives, as random as it may seem at times, can result in powerful moments when a hidden truth is shared or a day suddenly becomes bearable and light when it seemed hours earlier it didn’t have a prayer.

On February 2^nd I sat in a community worship service at McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago and the preacher whom I did not know suddenly mentioned my name.  It turns out he had been in a youth group at the Carmichael Presbyterian Church where I had once served during a difficult time in the church’s history, in 1988. He drew a direct line between that youth group experience and his current ministry in Illinois. It was touching, but it also made me feel flawed, since for the life of me I could not remember ever having met him.  Lives intersect in one place and then they do again.  Usually we do not know what impact they will have.

The day before I had had interviews with two seminary students In Princeton NJ who were very interested in our residency program and eager to know if they stood a chance. They were both about to graduate. They were from totally different sides of the globe, both far from where they were studying. In the hours you spend with them, you become aware of the intersecting of your life and theirs.  You ask questions and you listen to their story and you start caring about that story. Yet you cannot control how it continues.  Maybe your story and theirs will converge for a while, or maybe what is important is that moment when you were present for them and encouraged them and affirmed their value.  Maybe others are searching somewhere else and you must find where they are.  However, I was sure that afternoon about the importance of what our congregation was offering to them and also conscious of how complicated students’ lives are.  You see them struggle with the questions of their professional future that is about to begin just as they try to convince you what a good candidate they are.  As I learn more about the students and their needs and we continue our preparations for hosting them, I wonder which lives will intersect with ours on that familiar church campus to create new points of energy and new connections beyond them. It looks like we will be ready.  May God bless our ministry. Aart