SeaPres Update: Happy New Year

Our family sat around the table (where you can usually find this clan) on New Year’s Day and talked about aspirations and hopes for 2019. We refrain from using resolutions because they just seem fraught with inevitable disappointment. There was the assortment of the get healthy, read more variety, but one that stood out and was repeated by most was “be more intentional, more present”.

Perhaps it was the loss of a beloved family member and the reality of life’s fragility, or maybe the general sense that the world seems colder and meaner somehow with children separated from their parents, famine decimating an entire generation, rampant acts of blatant racism, senseless gun violence … all this brokenness seems to urge us to a place of being more mindful of not just the world around us, but our own selves in relation to it.

This past year was a difficult one, and though we have barely broken through to the new one, there is already heaviness coming from our nation’s capital and other countries around the world.

And yet…

And yet our hope does not reside in the magic of turning a calendar page. Or the ability to close our eyes and retreat to our safe spaces.

Our hope lies in the One who dared to step into those very same places to love and serve.

Perhaps the gift of intentionality and presence is the opportunity for us to emulate Christ and step into the new year with clear eyes and an open heart, to proclaim that our story is still being written, and that we do this messy thing called life together. With the grace from God, the love of Christ, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.

This is my hope for us all.

Rev. Eliana Maxim

Associate Executive Presbyter