To My Gretna UMC Family

Thank you so much for how you have loved me and walked with me these past four and a half years. Your resilience is inspiring. Your ability to release what needs to be released and hold on to what needs to be cherished is a beautiful and unique gift.

Your generosity to me, as your pastor, and to all who need to be reminded that they are loved by God plants seeds of hope. As your pastor I was able to see firsthand the impact you have on lives – lives that need to be reminded that they are not alone, lives that need to be reminded that they are worthy of healing, lives that need someone to show them that joy can be restored.

Thank you so much for the wonderful dinner and generous gifts. Enough memories to last a lifetime! Most of all, thank you for being so generous with your love and encouragement. I bring all that you have taught me into this next chapter of my life.

For certainly, the journey continues.

Much love,

Jo

Our Home in Him

I’ve been thinking a lot about what it means to be “at home.” As we add yet another box to the stack of boxes waiting to be moved to “our new home,” a part of me isn’t quite sure where home is. Is it really where my heart is? Where my stuff is? Where my family is? Is it where my friends are?

How do we make a house a home? Hang our favorite pictures? Unpack all of the boxes? Cook meals in the kitchen? Even with bare walls and more and more boxes lining the walls, this place still feels like home. As I struggle to define what “home” means to me I think of what I tell friends who come to visit… “Make yourself at home.” What I mean is, be comfortable, be yourself.

As I grow in my relationship with Jesus, I must also confess that feeling “at home” means that it is okay to sometimes feel uncomfortable; it sometimes offers the invitation to evolve into your truer self. Learning to cook, learning to sew, learning a healthier lifestyle, learning to fix things, learning to let go of things…

Someone once said, “Home isn't where you're from, it's where you find light when all grows dark.” What brings comfort to me during this time of transitioning from one home to another is knowing that in Jesus I am always at home. Jesus invites all of us, as siblings of God, to “make ourselves at home.”

Pastor Jo

June 5, 2024

"The Truest Truth"

As Eastertide continues and we work our way to Pentecost Sunday, what stands out to you?

Have you spent time outside the empty tomb?

Have you walked away from the room that is locked with fear and guilt?

Have you heard Jesus’s invitation to experience life beyond what has been?

Have had taken a moment to release the anxiety of “what is next?”

and settle into what is?

As we continue to discern, struggle, invite resurrection, and rediscover who we are, I offer this excerpt from the pen of my friend and colleague, Britney Winn Lee:

“We open ourselves, when we’re ready,

to the truer truth. The truest truth.

And that is this.

Smaller ships turn faster.

Death is just the beginning.

Scarcity is a distraction.

Abundance is absolute.

Shalom is our inheritance.

The arc is justice-pointed.

In tension is creativity.

In desperation lies a new paradigm.

Out of labor comes new life.

More has been done with less.

The next right thing is enough.

All that we need is here.

Something new is stirring.

Something new is waiting.

Something new is gestating.

And God needs not for us to wear ourselves thin

bailing water from sinking boats all because we do

not trust ourselves as swimmers.

Let sodden boards warp, and we may find ourselves

walking atop waves with Jesus.

The truest truth is that God’s kingdom is not in trouble.

The truest truth is that our calling has not changed.

The truest truth is that we are a part of living history.

The truest truth is that in the economy of the Spirit,

where the last are first, the poor are rich, the

least are greatest, and the weak are strong,

we are in good company here in the flood lands,

planting seeds that the rains may indeed wash away.

Something will take.

Something will grow.

Something is taking! Something is growing!

Watch closely, for when the dust settles,

we’ll learn that the work didn’t stop.

We’ll learn that we didn’t stop!”

May we each invite "the truest truth" of God’s love to be resurrected within each of us!

Pastor Jo

April 23, 2024