A New Year has arrived! I wonder what is in store for us as we enter this year of 2022? I sense the communities where we live becoming alive as we experience freedom from lockdowns that have been persisting over nearly two years. This change is happening even though we are still experiencing new strains of the COVID virus. I see particularly an improvement in the social and economic areas of our country occurring.
Here in NSW we have been experiencing the effects of coming out of lockdown from the COVID virus for several months. As I go out in the community, eat at restaurants, do the shopping and attend church I have noticed everywhere a bright, more energetic and positive spirit. People have become more friendly and willing to say hello and have a chat. There is more traffic on the roads and sporting events are being held on playing fields.
At our Open Door congregation it has been uplifting to gather and sing, listen, worship and bask in the physical friendships we have missed for so long. And on top of all these great achievements, we are able to travel widely and enjoy God’s beautiful creation.
As I take all of these things into my mind I feel as though I have arrived at a new beginning. Do you get the same feeling no matter where you are as your community begins to free up from lockdown? So what’s ahead of us? I guess it’s mainly up to each of us how we will shape the future in our own personal lives, and how we might be able to influence, our communities and Christian mission. In fact for all of us we are entering into a period of transformation.
A number of years ago Rich Brown wrote an article in the Saint’s Herald entitled The Trouble with Transformation. Rich pointed out that “transformation is not the same as any change word employing the prefix ‘re’: reorganize, restructure, rejuvenate, restore…The trouble with transformation is another matter, it’s about sensing which way the Spirit is blowing.”
There is a need for each of us to be sensitive to the Spirit providing enlightenment for us to envision the new settings and the new directions for us to take in order to become a transformed person and a transformed church. The phrase, “Let the Spirit breathe” is being used as a guide for us as we face a new future. May we be sensitive to the Spirit enlightening us and directing us into this New Beginning of transformation?
The phrase, “Let the Spirit breathe” is being used as a guide for us as we face a new future. May we be sensitive to the Spirit enlightening us and directing us into this New Beginning of transformation?
This challenge of transformation comes to us in the words of President Veazey in D&C 165:1b: “As a spiritual venture, boldly follow the initiatives into the heart of God’s vision for the church and creation. Then, in response to growing insight about God’s nature and will, continue to shape communities that live Christ’s love and mission.”
Bill Gillard
Evangelist Bill Gillard lives with his wife Betty at the foothills of the Blue Mountains, just outside of Sydney, NSW.