Dear St. Lukers,
I remember when I graduated high school, I knew exactly what I was going to do with my life. I was headed to journalism school, and I saw a bright future as a newspaper editor and graphic designer. I had poured so much of my short life already into that work – on my high school newspaper staff, spending summers at special programs learning about journalism and media, and applying to all the best J-schools.
Fast forward another two years, and my whole life trajectory had changed, as so many of ours do in those first years of college, or even in a new job. I found myself more drawn to working with teenagers as a youth minister than to the still important work of journalistic storytelling.
So what happened? Was I wrong? Did God finally decide to show up and give me my calling? Did I waste those other years invested in a career I would never see to full fruition?
It would be easy to feel that way and to discount those prior years “before my calling,” but that’s not how God works! God had been at work all the way through. God was calling me all the way through. It wasn’t that I missed anything, it was just how my personal story of calling and finding vocation evolved.
This week in worship, we’ll explore another way that we Come Alive as Jesus’ sidekicks in His great Hero Story, focusing on how we as supporting characters are called to live out our own stories in subplots, our unique callings and stories. You have a story that is unfolding – you may not see it as a major part of the great Hero Story, and yet – it is! Your story is a subplot in God’s story, and even the most mundane moments are part of how God is calling you and how God is inviting you to tell God’s great story.
Join us Sunday as we see an unlikely supporting character in the book of Acts – Lydia – who bucks both the structures of her society as a female, business-owning head of household, as well as surprising our early church leaders in the way she shares the gospel.
And in the same way we might find ourselves surprised at how God works through Lydia, we have also had the opportunity to find entirely new callings in the last year of living through a pandemic together. While there are many aspects of the last year we are all ready to leave behind when the time is right and safe, if you’re like me, there are probably a few things you’ll be taking with you “from now on,” as we said on Easter.
What are the lessons you’ve learned that you are taking with you as we look at what it means to “come back home” in the next few months? How will you live differently “from now on” because of the last year’s experiences? We’d love to hear about that to help shape a future worship series, as well as the answers to a few other “coming back home” questions on this survey (click here).
Looking forward to seeing you Sunday either on campus or online at 9:15 or 11:00 a.m. as we Come Alive together!
Blessings,
Pastor Melissa