Faith and Trust

The following is adapted from the September, 2014 issue of the Wheatland Parish newsletter.

Summer is over.  The kids are back in school.  We’ve started church school, too.  In Gettysburg, church school is called “Faith Builders” and is Wednesdays after school.  It began on September 3.  In Onida, church school is on Sundays during church and began on September 7.

That’s not all that started in September.  Confirmation class started September 3.  So did senior high youth group in Gettysburg and CCYG in Onida.  The Gettysburg UMW and Manor Circle began after taking the summer off.  The church councils resume meeting on a regular basis.  The Gettysburg church choir will started practicing on Wednesdays and will soon be singing on Sunday mornings again.

In one way, it’s always sad to see summer come to an end.  In another way, though, it’s kind of fun to see fall come and a new church year start.  Anything new contains all kinds of possibilities, and that’s true of all our church activities.  It’s especially true this year, because we’ve had a prayer emphasis for the last few months on the unchurched children of our parish.  Will that prayer emphasis show itself in more kids in our church schools and youth groups?

Well, maybe, maybe not.  After all, we have not been praying for God to give us big church schools and youth groups.  We’ve been praying for God to help us reach the unchurched children of our parish.  If the way God chooses to answer our prayers is through our church schools and youth groups, that would be great.  I’d like that.  But if God chooses to answer our prayers in some other way, that’s great, too.  

We have not been selfishly praying for a big church school or a big youth group.  We’ve been praying for God to help us reach the unchurched children of our parish.  Any way God chooses to answer that prayer will be fine.  If we reach those children, and they end up going to another Christian church, that will be fine.  If we reach those children, but their faith does not show itself in our time but in God’s time, that will be fine, too.  But we know that if we continue to pray, and if we continue to open ourselves to God’s leading and God’s guidance, God will answer our prayers in some way.  And we trust that whatever way God chooses will be the way that’s best.

That needs to be the way we always approach prayer.  We pray for God to answer our prayers.  We should not, however, demand that God answer our prayers in a certain way.  It’s okay for us to have a way we’d like God to answer, but we need to trust that God knows better than we do.  So, any way God chooses to answer our prayers should be fine with us.  We simply continue to pray, to open ourselves to God’s leading and God’s guidance, secure in the knowledge that if we do, God will answer our prayers in some way.  And we trust that whatever way God chooses will be the way that’s best.
           

So please keep praying that God will help us reach the unchurched children of our community. Trust that God will answer our prayers.  Trust that God will answer our prayers in the way that’s best.  And trust in something else, too.  Trust that when we open ourselves to God’s leading and to God’s guidance, some really unexpected, but really wonderful things will happen!