Rev Bill

As many of you know, Sally and I are moving to South Carolina next week. This is not an easy time for either of us — leaving friends and members of the Church where I’ve served for 22 years — Sally leaving Potters in this area, most of whom she taught the art of Pottery — leaving friends that seem like family to us.

But — that’s what happends when we risk loving people. When the time comes for leaving them, it is painful. But the pain is worth all the blessings we receive from those we dare to love and who dare to love us.

Here’s what Henri Nowen says on the subject:

Every time we make the decision to love someone, we open ourselves to great suffering, because those we most love cause us not only great joy but also great pain. The greatest pain comes from leaving. When the child leaves home, when the husband or wife leaves for a long period of time or for good, when the beloved friend departs to another country or dies … the pain of the leaving can tear us apart.

Still, if we want to avoid the suffering of leaving, we will never experience the joy of loving. And love is stronger than fear, life stronger than death, hope stronger than despair. We have to trust that the risk of loving is always worth taking.

Even though it is not easy to leave Wentworth, Sally and I have faith in God’s leadership and know we will love the folks at Hopewell as much as we do the folks here!

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