Embracing the Unknown

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Happy New Year, or at least while it's still relatively fresh in our minds!!  Here we stand three days on the other side of the threshold of a new year as we have said our farewell to 2015 and hello to 2016.  I always view the world in artistic terms and see each new day, each new week, and each new year like that of a fresh canvas.  Just like each episode of the late Bob Ross's The Joy of Painting, the artist would always begin with a blank canvas and so too can we start anew as this year unfolds.

It was also a new day at The United Methodist Church of Rancho Cordova this morning, as Pastor Tina has moved onto retirement and we welcomed Pastor Jo Ann to our congregation.  It has been a strange feeling leading into this, as I have had to say farewell to two other beloved colleagues this past year, but as Pastor Jo Ann reminded us this morning, we need to press on and keep looking ahead.  Change is a constant in life, whether we like it or not.  But that leaves us with the ability to sit and sulk, resisting change, we can run away only to have change catch up with us, or we can embrace change and embrace the unknown, as change does involve a great deal of the unknown, hard as it is to do.

As I continue looking ahead, there is a lot of change coming, a lot of the unknown as I prepare to complete my Master's Divinity at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, DC, relocate back to California, and seeing where the road goes from there.  My hope is that I will have my first pastoral appointment in The United Methodist Church in July, but it won't be the end of the world if not, as there is a plan B.  It's all a matter of pressing on and embracing the unknown.

So what are you looking forward to in 2016?  What goals are you pressing on towards?  What unknown will you embrace?

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