Beginnings…

Denise and I decided the day before New Year’s Eve that we would end 2015 and begin 2016 by hiking in our beloved Rocky Mountain National Park. I guess you could say it was sort of a New Year’s Resolution. Frankly, it was a pleasure to keep. One thing we have quickly realized living in Estes Park, Colorado is that there is plenty to see and do. We don’t seem to run out of options when it comes to enjoying our new home.

On New Year’s Eve we took a hike around Lily Lake and enjoyed the scenery and the hike. On New Year’s Day we hiked up to Gem Lake where I took the above picture of the path. While hiking, I spent a fair amount of time pondering the Gospel reading for the Second Sunday after Christmas. I also thought a lot about how different the first day of 2016 was from the first day of 2015. The elevation had changed from the Gulf Coast at sea level to crossing over 8.600 feet above sea level as we hiked to the lake. I am in a new call as a pastor with a new congregation. The year 2015 was a year filled with mixed emotions as we closed one chapter of our lives on the Gulf Coast and opened a new chapter in the Rocky Mountains.

Denise and I are acclimating well to the change in weather. My Southern Wife is happy to proclaim to all that she is now a Colorado Girl! Now our little 4.5 pound Chihuahua Pixie is another story. When I put her coat on to take her out, I am glad that I can’t read her mind. For some reason I don’t think she is thinking good thoughts about Daddy! But she does love her house with HUGE windows, sunlight, and a fireplace to sleep in front of.

Okay Padre, how does this relate to John 1:1-18… I’ll get right to that now. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.” (John 1:1-4)

During my last three years in the Air Force, I would walk to the beach and simply be still in the wonder of God’s creation. I found the beach, waves and sunsets awe inspiring. Now, all I have to do is look out the window at home or at the church to be wowed by the majesty of God’s creation. In the beginning… I imagine the beginning of Big Thompson Canyon which goes from Estes Park to Loveland, Colorado. The deep canyon was begun by a stream of water carving out a channel over time.

It leaves me scratching my head in awe… sort of like when I saw this boulder with a nearly perfect circle in it. How on earth did that happen? I can pretty much tell that it isn’t made by human hands. Once again, wow… how amazing is God’s creation. In the beginning…

How do you define beginnings? How often can you have a new beginning? New Years Resolutions are one way that many folks define those beginnings. The first day on a new calendar with a whole blank calendar ahead waiting to be filled. Or perhaps it is a new job, a new home, a new opportunity in life…

For Denise and I, the new beginning happened when we packed up our car and drove from DeFuniak Springs, Florida (via Mobile, Alabama) to Estes Park, Colorado the week of 24 August. For the church I am serving, Presbyterian Community Church of the Rockies in Estes Park, the new beginning started when I stepped into the pulpit on 30 August and preached my first sermon as their called and soon to be installed pastor.

The Church and I are also in the midst of learning to be a team. The Pastor and Parishioner; all called to love and serve the Lord in the Estes Valley. We are building on the shared foundation of ministry that has gone before. PCCR was built on Community when Estes Park was still a western town with dirt roads and livery stables. Okay, we still have one livery in town and plenty of dirt roads, but you get the idea. Their Pastor is building on 28 years of ordained ministry. It was fitting that my installation was on the 27th of  September, the 28th anniversary of my ordination back in 1987.

We each bring gifts to the ministry here in the Estes Valley at the foot of the Rocky Mountain National Park. And we are building on those gifts as we begin a new chapter in our history individually and collectively. One thing that I keep going back to as we begin (and continue) this adventure is this: In the beginning was the Word. The Word, Logos, God’s Word. And in the context of John’s Gospel, the Word was Christ.

I have found in my ministry through the years that when I go back to the foundation, I can build or rebuild as the case may be. In the case of this Padre and PCCR, we are building on the solid foundation of Christ Jesus. We are who we are by the grace of God. Our past (the good, the bad, and the ugly) has helped to make us who we are. But it is the Lord who is walking with us as we go forth to serve the Lord together.

This is a new beginning for both of us. I am confident of this though: “This is the day the Lord has made AND we will rejoice and be glad in it.” (Psalm 118:24)

For you, dear reader, as you begin a new year, my prayer is that there will be something to rejoice and be glad for in your own life. If you are in a place where the struggle is great and your faith is perhaps wavering, tie a knot in the end of the rope and hang on. The promise of John 1:5 has taken me through many periods of spiritual and physical darkness in my own journey. “The light shines in the darkness. And the darkness has not overcome it.”