New Beginnings...Great Opportunities

By Rev. Ethan Brown

Pastor and Minister of Care & Discipleship

“Though your destination is not yet clear
You can trust the promise of this opening, 
Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning 
That is at one with your life's desire.
 
Awaken your spirit to adventure;
Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk;
Soon you will be home in a new rhythm,
For your soul senses the world that awaits you.”
 
My son, Basil, is quite good at sleeping. Unless he is sick, we can go through our bedtime routine of bath, story, and song then lay him down and leave the room. He takes care of the rest. At least he does now, at age two and after sleep training. When he was eight months old, we were still averaging under four hours of sleep a night. What a blessing that we do not know the full scope or cost of our journeys at their beginnings or we might never step outside our places of comfort. 
 
These two stanzas above are the final from John O’Donohue’s poem “For a New Beginning,” which has been rattling around my head for a couple of weeks now. The whole collection of blessings in To Bless the Space Between Us is insightful and worth reading, though for obvious reasons I have been drawn to this blessing. Elsewhere, O’Donohue also notes that, “Through the innocence of beginning we are often seduced into growth.” The early innocence of a new job, marriage, or life—it is the innocent invitation to a journey that will ultimately ask difficult things from its travelers. A new season is unfolding at Highland Hills, one whose shape and scope are unknown to any of us. Yet despite that uncertainty, I have heard from many of you your excitement and hope for what is ahead. Undoubtedly, there will be difficult days even as there are moments that make every hardship worthwhile. The invitation is here for us to lean into the grace of this beginning and explore the adventures and opportunities for risk that God brings before us. What might we have lacked the courage to do before this moment, but because of this beginning we are open to it? What new rhythms can we embrace while other patterns have shaken loose? 
 
There is risk in beginnings, but also great opportunity. And while our road is unknown, we know that God is faithful in his presence with us. I am excited to step forward into this beginning with you as we discover the new world that awaits us.