Detour

It typically takes me 5 minutes to drive from my house to the church building and about 24 minutes to walk the same route. This week, however, my drive has doubled in length while Pontiac Ave is under construction. I’ve been in Cranston long enough that I feel justified in complaining about having to drive 10 minutes to get to work. But, I won’t! Instead, I want to reflect for a moment on the new things I saw while driving through the neighborhood on a detour. I did not realize there was an old cemetery on the other side of Pontiac. There is also a cute little free library that matches the house it belongs to! I haven’t stopped to check out the book selection yet, but I will. There are also so many lovely flowers in bloom in the yards I’ve driven past and some patio lights I need to further research.

It is so easy to shut out the world around us when we are on our regular routes. Have you ever had the experience of driving somewhere and realizing part way through the drive that you were on autopilot and not thinking about your location at all? I know I have!

Faith can be like this too. We settle into our “regular routes” of prayer or church and then we realize that we haven’t seen the world around us in a while. I think it is really easy in a faith community to fall into regular routes. I mean, who has the energy for new things all the time? Not me! But then a detour pops up - the pandemic, pastoral transition, deaths, the pipe falling out of the organ (!!!) - and the Spirit puts up a DETOUR sign. We might initially be uncomfortable on a new route we didn’t choose, but then hopefully we can look around and see whatever new sights the Spirit places in front of us.

PMBC has had a few detours these past five years (and certainly many more in the 119 years prior). Each of you has had your own detours in your lives. I’ve been here for some of them. And in each space where life has thrown up the orange cones, I also can attest that the Spirit has shown you new sights.

Ephesians 1 includes a prayer for its readers: “I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power” (1:17-19).

This year, as we approach the 125th anniversary of our congregation, the year in which we celebrate and join in with God’s Spirit working through us, I pray that we have the kinds of detours that give us opportunity for the eyes of our hearts to be enlightened. And when the detours come, because they always do, that our hope also increases as we live into the workings of God’s power here at PMBC and around the world.

Blessings,

Pastor Amy