August 17, 2016

Keep Calm and . . .

In 1939, as WWII loomed on the European horizon, the British Minister of Information commissioned a series of posters to help boost the morale of English citizens.  One of those original posters was, Keep Calm and Carry On.  If you have spent any time on the internet, you have probably seen a knock-off version of that at one point or another.  And if you haven't, here are a few that I've seen:

Keep Calm and Avoid Zombies; Keep Calm and Write On; Keep Calm and Carry On 'cuz Stuff Happens; Keep Calm and Hakuna Matata; Calm You Shall Keep and Carry On You Must.

We have entered a period of deep change, stress, and uncertainty.  For my part, it revolves around managing some important details of two parishes, being inundated by moving company sales reps, working with my wife and daughter to get organized, cleaned, and begin the packing process.  Mrs. Ref is saying goodbye to people at her office and hoping to be there long enough to help train her replacement.  She is also resigning from her chorus, and will be making a trip to Hagerstown to go house hunting over Labor Day weekend.

For your part, it revolves around finding the next priest for St. Luke's.  Will there be supply clergy?  Will there be an interim priest?  What work do we need to do to prepare for that?  What will the Vestry be doing?  How involved will Cn. Neysa and Bp. Michael be?  And there are probably many other questions that I'm not thinking of.

This swirl of change, stress, and uncertainty will revolve around us for some time, I think.  Eventually we will all settle into a new normal where some things remain the same while others are simply recognized as different.

All change is stressful.  And we've probably all heard about good change and bad change, good stress and bad stress.  We've heard of various ways to manage that stress; I have more than a few books on my shelf written about that very topic.  What I've come to realize is that there are really two ways to manage stress:  proactively or reactively.

My prayer for St. Luke's is that you, as a body, will choose to be proactive during this time.  Instead of focusing on loss, focus on areas of growth.  Instead of focusing on problems, work to reframe this time as offering opportunities.  For instance, instead of focusing on the potential loss of a Morning Prayer service, the two people who attend regularly are seeing this as a way to be challenged and grow with the opportunity to lead that service themselves, hopeful that their faithfulness will attract others to join them.

And so, as Jesus probably should have said to his disciples upon his departure, “Keep Calm and Carry On – You have much to accomplish.”

Amen.