Weaving Prayer Into the Tapestry of Life

At the end of the service on Sunday, our pastor announced to the congregation that he has resigned. A sad silence fell over the sanctuary. Last February he learned that he has cancer – multiple myeloma, a particularly nasty variety. We have gone with him through chemotherapy and stem cell replacement. He is now “in remission” but knows that this is only for an unknown limited time. He will have to continue to be on chemotherapy to maintain the remission. Last night, he talked about this with members of the congregation. People asked,, “What are you going to do now?” He answered calmly, “I don’t know.”
I heard that response as a statement of faith. He does not know a lot of things. But he was calmly facing his uncertain future. I read into that faith that God is, has been and will be intimately with him, knowing everything about his life and circumstances, and calling him to enjoy the ideal possibilities God offers him for where he is now. I told him the way I was hearing him. He laughed and said. “Don’t make me a saint. I am anxious about it.” But then he added: “But I do trust that God will give me everything I need in order to live the life to which God is calling me.”
I was reminded about a time when I did not know what I was going to do next. I retired and my husband died within a month’s time. I had lost my professional identity as a pastor and my personal identity as a wife. I had been deeply involved in both identities. I told my clergy prayer group that I felt as if my future was an empty page. One of my colleagues prayed for me saying “Well God, I am eager to see what you are going to do with this blank page. I trust that you have plans for Martha and that you will let her know about them. But I want to see what you are going to do and how you are going to do it. (This story is in Weaving Prayer Into the Tapestry of Life)
That prayer has been important to me over the years. So today I sent it on in an email. “God, I am eager to see what you are going to do with Guy’s blank page. I trust that you have plans for him and that you will let him know about them. But I want to see what you are going to do and how you are going to do it,” And I too am calm in the assurance that God will be with him giving him what he needs to live the life to which God calls him. But we are going to miss him as a pastor. He is a remarkable man.