August 21, 2024
A Note from Jon Esala
Greatest Hists: Revisiting some previous Letters of Encouragement, in celebration of all God has done during these last four years!
Dear Friends,
A lot has changed in my own life since I first wrote this letter in February 2022. The biggest change of course is my son Emmett was born in January 2023. Now that he’s a year and a half, it’s hard to believe that there was ever a time he wasn’t around.
I wrote this letter at the start of my tenure as one of the lay leaders of this congregation. This coming Sunday is our annual laity Sunday, where our staff goes on retreat and laypeople lead all three services. Our other lay leader, Ginny Fisher, will be delivering the message.
I’m now approaching the end of my time as lay leader. While I am certainly looking forward to having fewer evening church meetings, I’m also excited to see what God has next for this church from a different vantage point.
I still believe in this same flow of grace I wrote about in February 2022. To me, grace is an invitation. I am not essential but I am invited. By that I mean, the Spirit of God is going to move in the world whether or not I’m participating in the flow of grace, and I am always invited to join that flow and have it change me and through me impact those around me.
It’s been a privilege to serve this church the past few years. I’m definitely going to stick around. I hope in the coming years that Emmett will experience this community of faith as a reminder of his own belovedness and his own invitation into the same flow of the Spirit of God moving among us.
Thanks,
Jon
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Originally sent February 24, 2022:
A few weeks ago, the Church Council gathered to ponder the coming year. Before we talked about any plans, Pastor April’s spiritual director Anita led us in a time of reflection on our own journeys of faith. I was grateful for the chance to contemplate, and I gained some insight into my own story.
The thread of God’s love
I noticed the thread of God’s love at each station along my journey of faith, drawing me into the flow of grace.
When I was a child, God’s love felt tangible to me, as though God were whispering to me that I was beloved.
As a teenager, I felt grace when I learned I didn’t need to be perfect.
When I was in college, God’s love called me to struggle with a faith that felt narrow and unloving to so many. As I separated from some communities I had long treasured, God’s love was still present even if I doubted it was real.
Throughout my life, I’ve felt God’s love whenever I’m in nature.
I sometimes feel ashamed of my past beliefs, words, and actions. I sometimes even mock my past self. I’m finding, however, that if I honor my journey honestly — both acknowledging the real reasons I moved on and remembering the gifts I received at each stage — that shame melts away. I’m left with grace and the path still in front of me.
Drawn to Jesus even if I don’t have many answers
I’ve been a part of this church for five years now, and I’m so grateful for this community. It’s been a healing place for me. I’ve felt freedom to be myself — someone still drawn to Jesus even if I don’t have many answers.
This year, I’m honored to serve as one of the lay leaders for the church. I hope I can be useful, and I trust that along the way I’ll continue to find grace. God’s mission has been going on long before us and will continue long after us. Yet, we are invited on the journey of experiencing and extending God’s love.
The Great Story
In this year of encountering God through The Great Story, I find it helpful to remember that I’m not alone on my journey of faith, and many have gone before me.
Many of the stories we’re covering are unsettling. I find that oddly comforting, though, because God shows up in the messiness of real human lives — joys, hopes, triumphs, fears, disappointments, and failures.
Perhaps if God’s love showed up in the full human lives of the characters we see in these scriptures, we may find that God’s love is ready to meet us in our full humanity.
Perhaps we may find that God’s love is inviting us to participate in the flow of grace, too.
As we make decisions in the coming year about how we’re going to use the additional space in Warehouse 839, engage in the many ongoing activities of this church, and consider how we emerge from the most acute phase of this pandemic, I hope we’ll remember that all of it is grace. All of it is an invitation to participate in God’s love filling us up and extending out.
Friends, I hope you encounter God’s love precisely in the midst of your life.
I hope that love spills over into those you encounter.
I hope that together we make space for God’s love to be made known without exception in this community.
I still believe God’s love transforms lives — giving freely that which we so often think we need to earn.
Jon Esala
