Spring: Signs of New Life

“From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near.” (Mark 13:28)

If you’re like me, apart from the pollen, Spring is among my most favorite times of the year. Plants begin to bud, trees and flowers start to bloom, there is a warmth in the air, and everywhere one can see signs of new life springing up after the cold and apparent deadness of winter.

This is, of course, why springtime is often used as a metaphor for the Christian season of Easter (which is not just a day but an entire season lasting for 40 days after Easter Sunday!).  During this time, we celebrate the new life that Jesus spent with his disciples following his resurrection.

But Spring is also a metaphor for our own personal lives – for the fact that every one of us has “winters” from which God’s power can wake us up and bring us back to life through the warmth and new life of his “Son” Jesus.  For some of us, those “winters” take the form of grief, job loss, pain and hurt from the severing of a relationship, financial insecurities, and other things.  But the resurrection of Jesus can give us not only hope for a better future, but actually begin in us a new life in that hope, as well.

Yet, I believe that Spring is also a fitting metaphor for what our society and church are experiencing this year, as well.  While we certainly have a strong past to celebrate, this Spring we are also seeing signs of renewed life and vitality in our community and in and through our church’s ministries and programs.  We’ve experienced recent renewal in our worship, children’s, and student ministries, new small groups being formed, new members joining, baptisms taking place, and people making new commitments to Christ and his church.

As with Spring and Jesus’ resurrection, all of these things are indicators that something good is happening here at McKendree, and that even greater things are still to come!  So, wherever you find yourself in your own personal spiritual walk with God, my prayer is that you will use this season of Spring as a time to re-engage and re-connect with either the in-person or online work of God through McKendree UMC.  You’ll be blessed when you do!  Remember that God loves you and I do, too!

2-Year Pandemic Anniversary Litany Prayer

This week marks two years since COVID-19 was declared a pandemic and our world changed forever.  Since that time, over 6 million people have died as a result of it (nearly 970,000 in the U.S. alone), with nearly 460 million infections (80 million in the U.S.).  As a way to remember those who've suffered and who we've lost, I invite you to pray this litany either by yourself or with others, anytime this week. 

It was written and first shared by Rev. Lindsay Geist on our North Georgia Conference webpage...

"We pause and name all those who have contracted Covid-19, those who have died, and all the funerals that we have missed.

We pause and name all the losses we have experienced, the tangible and the intangible.

We pause and name the hard choices that we had to make and the parts of life that will never be the same.

Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.

We pause and mourn everything that stopped over the past two years.

We pause and mourn the loss of jobs, loss of dreams, and loss of relationships.

We pause and mourn that life will never go back to the “before” moment and that we are forever changed.

Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.

We pause and express gratitude for all the healthcare workers who work tirelessly to care for people experiencing illness and their families.

We pause and express gratitude for the researchers that have worked collaboratively to create a vaccine to help end the pandemic.

We pause and express gratitude for the essential workers that stood in harms way to help us continue to meet our basic needs.

Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.

We pause and reflect on all the time we’ve missed with those we love when we had to be apart.

We pause and reflect on all the extra time we had with those in our household.

We pause and reflect on how hard it was to crisis school our kids at home, take care of family members away from us, and still maintain our own jobs working from home.

Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.

We pause and honor how tired we are still from managing and simply surviving these past two years.

We pause and honor that we made decisions even when we weren’t sure what was the right decision.

We pause and honor our resiliency, even when we haven’t felt resilient.

Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.

We pause and acknowledge how worn out we are emotionally and physically from navigating this pandemic.

We pause and acknowledge how the constant pivoting and uncertainty has forever changed us.

We pause and acknowledge all the anger, sadness, and fear we felt over the past two years.

Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.

We pause and appreciate all the new skills we learned over these past two years.

We pause and appreciate the adaptability that emerged within us and our communities.

We pause and appreciate that the pandemic granted us some permission to let things go that haven’t been serving us.

Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.

We pause and celebrate all the new opportunities we gained from breaking with old ways and routines.

We pause and celebrate our newfound longing for community and connection.

We pause and celebrate that even when we weren’t gathering at the church building, church kept happening.

Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.

We pause and give thanks that you, God, sit with us in our moments of pain and know what that is like.

We pause and give thanks that you, God, have been present during this season of uncertainty and wilderness.

We pause and give thanks that you, God, have given us glimpses of the Kingdom of God in and through people and experiences over the last two years.

Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.

In the darkness of the last two years, help us hold in tension the grief with the moments of light and hope. That while so much of the world has changed – God, you have remained the same. We bring to you all of these prayers as well as the unspoken words on our lips and in our hearts. We offer these prayers in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen."

by Rev. Lindsay Geist, LCSW

Church Transition and Clinical Resource Specialist

North Georgia Conference of The United Methodist Church, copyright 2022