A Word from Pastor Nathan
Most mornings I raise my garage door, slide into the driver’s seat of my sedan, retreat from the driveway, and after an equal number of right and left-hand turns, arrive at 301 Washington Avenue. Two months ago, the Century Building was demolished, which disrupted my morning commute for two days. Following the fire at the Troxel building and its demolition, the intersection of Washington Avenue of Broad has been closed. I don’t want to confess how many times I’ve taken left-hand turns onto Broad Street in the mornings and left-hand turns out of the WACC parking lot in the evenings only to remember that I need to take the detour. Detours are frustrating, and I often cuss in the car about the alternative route and the fact that I’ve forgotten, yet again, the requirement to get to my destination by another way.
I’m currently listening to the book A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman during morning runs. Backman’s text is hilarious yet serious, and I often find myself tripping—quite literally—over the author’s words. This sentence struck me: “All roads lead to something you were predestined to do.” For transparency’s sake, I don’t believe that all the world’s a stage and that we’re merely players following some divinely-inspired, pre-planned script that hasn’t been given to us in its entirety. Hogwash. And yet, I do think there is something we’re predestined to do; there’s someone we’re predestined to be and to become, and somehow all roads—even the detours—lead us toward that point, toward home.
On Sunday, we’ll mark the one-year anniversary of our suspension of in-person activities. This hiatus—a time in which everything has sped up and slowed to a snail’s pace—has been one heckuva detour. However, I’m curious how this road, which we have forged by walking, is leading us toward something for which we were predestined.
I wish I could tell you what the arrival point will be for us as a church, what it will look like, or how we’ll feel once we get there. Truthfully, I don’t know that there are answers, and I would be suspicious if there were. However, this I trust: This detour is leading us toward something new. I can feel that energy and excitement brewing, which may serve to temper the words I want to holler at the detours.
On the way with you,
