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Sunday, January 3, 2010

Get Real in 2010
Rhonda Elgersma takes us into the new year with thoughts on authenticity — taking off the masks and getting real with yourself, with God, and with the world.
Want to learn more about Rhonda and her ministry check out
www.eocyugo.org
www.rhosadventures.blogspot.com

Sometimes something comes to you from multiple directions, insisting, by its multiple intrusions that it must be shared. Such is the case with the poem that follows. I received it in an e-card, for New Year’s. Then, a few days ago I watched an interview with a British journalist who had written the ‘official’ biography of Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. 70 years ago she had given a poem to her husband, King George VI, which he quoted in his year-end radio broadcast. Depression poverty was rampant in Britain, Hitler had declared war, and the blitz was about to begin. It was dark days, but the King and Queen were people of faith. So the King read the words of this poem which the author titled ‘God Knows.’ It had such a positive, memorable impact on people that it became known as ‘The Gate of the Year.’

“And I said to the man who stood at the
gate of the year: Give me a light that I
may tread safely into the unknown.”
And he replied: ‘Go out into the darkness
and put your hand into the Hand of God.
That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.”

So I went forth, and finding the Hand of God, trod gladly into the night.
And He led me towards the hills and the breaking of day in the lone East.

So heart be still: What need our little life
Our human life to know, If God hath comprehension?

God knows. His will is best.
The stretch of years, which wind ahead, so dim
To our imperfect vision,
Are clear to God. Our fears
Are premature; In him,
All time hath full provision.

These words remained a source of comfort to the Queen for the rest of her life, and she had it engraved on brass plaques and fixed to the gates of the Chapel at Windsor Castle, where her husband was buried. The poem was read at her funeral in 2002 (age 101).
Seventy years on, since the King read them in 1939, the times are not nearly so ominous. Oh, granted, we have our challenges – economic, environmental, spiritual. But as then, ever thus – ‘Put your hand into the Hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.” AMEN.
Happy New Year! with love … ORVILLE

Wellington Square United Church

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Sunday, January 3, 2010

I've Been Thinking...by Rev. Dr. Orville James

New Testament in a Year

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