By Markus Grae-Hauck, Director of Music Ministries
“Keep in mind the miracle of the Chinese bamboo tree. After the seed for this amazing tree is planted, you see nothing, absolutely nothing, for four years except for a tiny shoot coming out of a bulb. During those four years, all the growth is underground in a massive, fibrous root structure that spreads deep and wide in the earth. But then in the fifth year the Chinese bamboo tree grows up to eighty feet!” ― Stephen Covey
How do we know that our congregation will be able to conduct a successful pledge drive, to find among its membership great leaders to serve on the Board of Trustees and other governing entities, to withstand all the forces that would distract from and weaken our mission?
We don’t know. Yes, we can point to our past and hope that it can be extrapolated into the future, but that’s hardly a guarantee. History is full of things that once were essential and no longer exist. So how do we find the strength to keep going in the face of such uncertainty?
The answer is faith (which is our theme for the month of March but might as well be the motto for this entire time we are living through). Faith means believing in the invisible, the silent, the not-yet-materialized. Faith enables us to put our best efforts into what we want the world to become, the beloved community that we hunger for.
Mark Miller’s composition “I Believe” beautifully encapsulates the concept of faith:
Happy spring!