Dear Friends
Waiting on God can be a frustrating experience – especially in the mad rush towards Christmas. The Season of advent is a gift inviting us to pause and pray.
Across the Circuit and District all Methodist Churches are joining in the conversation about ‘being Methodist in our Christian life in Scotland today’. At the Circuit meeting in March we will receive reports from each church as to how we are responding to the questions and challenges and the plans we are putting in place. This is not an easy time and we know there are no easy answers and yet, as the paper reminds us, we are called to be faithful disciples following the will of God even when that comes at great cost.
The paper also reminds us that God has not given up on us and we are strongly encouraged to pray. As the hymn ‘What a friend we have in Jesus’ reminds us ‘take it to the Lord in prayer’. Waiting on, listening for, the Word of God can be a frustrating experience but can also be liberating. In the uncertainty admitting we don’t know can be a beginning, opening a door to encounter the living God simply saying here we are God.
I encourage all the churches to take the opportunity afforded by advent to pause and pray about the next steps. Listening for what God might be saying through the scriptures, listening to the voices of those in our communities as we engage in action, listening for that small voice. The insistent cry of new birth breaking into our world demanding all our focus and attention, announcing I am with you – what are you going to do about it!
With love
Nick