Pastor Note for
February/March 2024

We like ice skating and, until recent years, always made a point of a few outings a year. As we went again after a couple of years had gone by, it honestly tested my patience to regain my confidence while frustrating me that I couldn’t as easily or quickly move the way I remembered. As we age we forget how difficult it is to learn something new. We get to a place where the abilities we have acquired, the hobbies we enjoy … the realities of our lives are stable and set. Returning to activities of the past, let alone discovering new ones, really challenge us (especially when it requires our coordination and feet!).

This same reality plays out in our faith lives. The world continues to move under our feet constantly removing our sense of security while testing our patience and compassion. We can feel as though our legs are unsteady beneath us, unable to ever catch our balance. Frustrated by the state of things, we can get to a place of complacence – unwilling to take the risk or lacking the patience to persevere.

As we begin Lent this month, we enter this season on unsteady legs. Taking those initial steps asks us whether we will commit to the time and discipline necessary to leave a little surer? Will we, through a willingness to take the risk of discipleship, recognize that we are always supported by God through the continued presence of the Holy Spirit? As we journey with Jesus into the wilderness, will we stand by our commitment to Christ when our balance is thrown off by adversity, maintaining our promises to work to make visible the ways he taught and lived? Responding yes does not mean that we won’t fall along the way nor that it won’t hurt. But it does mean that we will always be picked up, supported, and encouraged to try again and keep going. And someday we might just find that living as a disciple really does become second nature!

Yours in Christ, 

Rev. Daven Oskvig