by Rev. Dr. Stephen H. Furrer, Developmental Minister
“Not in his goals man is great, but in his transitions.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
Of all the months in the calendar, March always seems to me the most clearly transitional with its seeds germinating and bursting up through the soil and eggs breaking open. And then there’s the slowing lengthening days, until—imperceptibly—the days become longer than the nights. Meanwhile, it’s getting warmer, too, day by day. Life seems easy. It’s easy to ignore and forget things; and to assume that things will take care of themselves—that the garden will look lovely whether we tend to it or not.
But we must tend where tending is necessary, and there is no more critical time than March. Spring-cleaning is a good example. The annual pledge drive another. Avoiding the responsibilities of right now and assuming that by letting things slide they’ll turn out okay is a risky strategy. This is especially true when things are in serious flux. As we read in Plutarch’s Lives of Caesar, “He said to the soothsayer, ‘The Ides of March are come’; who answered him calmly, ‘Yes, they are come, but they are not past.’” And pass they never would for the overly confident monarch, who ignored the warning… and paid the penalty.
Let the dangerously transitional March come and pass for ESUC without mishap. This March is a good time to begin seriously flipping our focus from the past to the future. How can we strengthen our linkages with the denomination and the district? How can we become ever more viable—and vital—here in the greater Bellevue area? And more welcoming to newcomers? What energy do we as a congregation bring to the equation? I’ll be focusing on these questions and their impact of congregational life in the weeks and months ahead.
March with its winds gives way to April. I’ll see you there, when (with a salute to William Shakespeare) Daffodils,
That come before the swallows dare,
and take
the winds of March with beauty.
May it be so!