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January 4, 2022
By Pastor Jeff Fox-Kline
I started this blog in December of 2020, during the height of the (unbeknownst to me early/middle stage) pandemic. It was a way of keeping in touch with you all as the world continued to stay locked down. I was thinking I’d try it out in December, and that if it felt right that I’d keep doing it. And now it’s over a year later and I’m so grateful to have this space to share with you all.
I vaguely remember January of 2021. I remember that NYE feeling of infinite possibilities. And because of the long memory of the internet, I can recreate those feelings here. This is what I wrote in my blog that came out the first week of January:
“This is Pastor Jeff returning to you with the first blog post of 2021. What a joy it is to be able to write that. After an eternity of 2020, I’m looking forward to the brisk pace of 2021. I’m looking at you, vaccines”.
Oops.
That first post came out on January 5th, and the very next day there was an attempted coup in our nation’s capital.
Despite that, 2021 was not without its joys. I (and most everyone I know and love) got vaccinated as a protection against COVID. I was able to visit people in their homes, reconnect with family that I hadn’t seen for over a year, worship in person with people.
But 2021 was also with its hardships. The aforementioned insurrection, vaccine resistance, lack of eligibility for young people, Delta, Omicron.
Every year the first service of January is a celebration of Epiphany, in which we receive a star with a word on it that will act as a guide through the year. My word in 2021 was INTENTION. I’m still wrestling with it. As the year drew on, I tried to maintain a sense of intentionality about my decisions and actions. I wanted what I do to reflect what I wanted to do. And it was met with mixed success. I can say that the intentions that I set for myself yielded results, some that were the intended results, and some that were surprising. It did not make things easier in a difficult year, but at least it made things easier to understand. This word is not leaving the rotation for 2022, as the world turns in much the same way and the pace is still not anything like ‘brisk’.
My word this year is WONDER. I don’t know if it’s wonder in the sense of ‘being filled with wonder’ or ‘I wonder what will happen next’. Right now, I’m going to sit in the bewilderment of wonder. I don’t know what’s coming and I wonder how things will turn out. That’s right now. And I’m no longer in the prediction making business (we saw how that turned out), so I’ll make sure to phrase this carefully: I hope for and will look for ways in which I can be filled with wonder throughout the year. It may take a journey through the bewilderness to get there. It may happen as I’m still wondering why things continue to be the way they are. It may happen in big or small ways. I hope that I can be inspired by that sense of wonder, and hope that you may too. (There are still stars available if you want one, just contact the office!)
In the meantime, we can wonder what tomorrow looks like and fervently hope that it is truly wonderful.
As we continue this journey, I’m honored that it may be alongside you all. I’m grateful for the opportunity to serve, love, and grow together. I’m looking forward to us moving forward together.
Peace,
Jeff Fox-Kline