The world seems to be shifting into summer mode all around us.

The program year is coming to an end and it feels like everyone is packing in so many of the things that we have had to pair down or cancel during the last few years. Our family has been to dance recitals, piano recitals, school concerts and school neighbourhood BBQs, and soooo many birthday parties. 

In the church, we are moving into the long season of green where we slow down to hear the stories of Christ’s teaching, ministry and miracles. This summer we are hearing from Matthew’s Gospel, which began last week as Jesus called his disciples to follow him. This week we hear how he sends out his disciples with the authority to preach, heal, teach and cast out demons in his name. 

As we settle into the pacing of Ordinary Time, I cannot help but contemplate the transitions occurring at this time of year. There is all the “usual stuff” such as extra-curricular activities ending and summer vacations starting; children finishing one grade and preparing for the next; committees, ministries and programs taking summer hiatus; even hockey entering into the offseason. My mind is on colleagues and congregations entering into transition as well. Similarly, there was an the ordination on Sunday, marking formal beginning of a new ministry. 

I am also thinking about my own smaller shift into further education in the Doctor of Ministry program this fall and how that will transform the ministry that we are doing together. 

The world feels as though it is moving again in ways that it hasn’t moved for years now. Certainly things were happening, but the stuff of life was largely on pause as we waited to get through some very difficult circumstances. 2023 has been a year to catch up on things that we have been waiting for since 2019. 

And yet, the world is different. We aren’t going back; we are all that much older, and still recovering. 

Transition is hard; it is hard because it forces us to see and acknowledge the change we see around us, the changes we feel within us.  

Somewhere in all of this moving to the next new thing, I wonder how much we will try to go backwards and how much we can move forwards. I think God has something to say about that, too. Transition⎯moving into the next thing is what God is calling us into. But that doesn’t mean it is easy or that being changed is something that happens on our terms. 

As we move into summer 2023, we do so in a world that is going to new places. Yet, even as we face new experiences and realities that are stretching and transforming us, we know that God is with us and guiding our way.