More New Beginnings

The month of May is always a time of transition in my world.  It is that time when the college students are finishing up an academic year and preparing to head off for summer activities, or in the case of the seniors, the next phase of their lives.  It is a bittersweet time that culminates in Davidson’s Commencement, which I will be attending on May 17^th.  The graduating seniors are brimming with all kinds of emotions. They are celebrating all that they have accomplished in their time at Davidson; feeling an understandable level of anxiety and uncertainty about what the future holds for them; and grieving the end of what has been a very special time of their lives.  They are in that liminal place of “now-and-not-yet”, standing at the threshold of a new beginning.

This year, there is another transitional moment happening here at Saint Alban’s in the month of May.  This coming Sunday, Kevin Turner begins his role as our Minister of Music.  Kevin is joining us after and long and very fruitful tenure at Davidson United Methodist Church.  I’m sure Kevin is dealing with his own mix of emotions, but I also know that he is very excited about this new opportunity to offer his remarkable talents in a different part of the Body of Christ. It is another kind of new beginning. 

Life unavoidably involves times of transition and new beginnings.  They can happen at any stage of life, whether as expected milestones along the way or as unexpected surprises. While these moments can be exhilarating and joyful, they are sometimes unwelcome and come as the result of painful loss.  Whatever the circumstances, we are reminded that life is rarely linear and predictable.  These moments of liminality, whether chosen or unchosen, present us with opportunities to trust and lean into God’s grace and providential love.  This coming Sunday’s gospel reading reminds us of God’s ongoing and eternal presence in the Holy Spirit, who is as near to us as our very breath. In all the transitions and new beginnings that be encounter on life’s journey, we can indeed trust in God’s abiding presence and that there will be growth and important learnings on the way. 

John O’Donohue, in his poem For a New Beginning, offers the following:

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.

Yours in Christ,

Kevin L