Something New Is Already Growing
There is a moment in early spring, usually sometime in late March or early April, when you step outside and realize that while you were busy with everything else, the world went and changed on you. The cherry trees are blooming. The air smells different. Something has shifted, and you didn't get a memo.
I love that moment. Not because it's dramatic, but because it isn't. Spring doesn't announce itself. It just shows up, quietly doing what it was always going to do, rooted in something far older and more patient than any of us.
I have been sitting with a word from the prophet Isaiah these past few months, one that has been following me through our Regional Assembly and into this new season. God says to the people of Israel, still deep in their exile: "I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?" (Isaiah 43:19)
The question is not whether the new thing is coming. It is already springing forth. The question is whether we have the eyes to see it.
I wonder how many of us are in seasons of ministry where that question is pressing. Where we have been doing the faithful, often exhausting work of showing up, week after week, for people who are grieving or doubting or struggling to find their way. Where the congregation feels smaller than it used to, or the budget tighter, or the questions harder. Where we wonder, quietly, if anything we are doing is actually making a difference.
I want to say this as clearly and as gently as I can: something new is already growing. In your congregation. In your own ministry. In this regional family we are a part of together. It may not look like what we expected. New things rarely do. The Israelites expected God to repeat the Exodus, to roll back the Red Sea again, to do the thing that had already been done. And God said, essentially, do not get so attached to what I did before that you miss what I am doing right now.
Spring is not a repeat of last spring. But it is still spring.
I think of so many of you I have had the privilege of visiting these past several months, pastors and chaplains faithful in places that do not always make the headlines. You are sitting with the dying and walking with the grieving and showing up for the children who need someone to be there. You are preaching, week after week, into the faces of people who are carrying more than anyone around them knows. That is holy work. And it is not wasted.
God sees it. And I want you to know that I see it too.
As we move into May, into the full heart of this Georgia spring, I want to offer you this invitation: look for what is springing forth. In the unexpected conversation that cracked something open. In the young person who is asking questions about faith with real urgency. In the small thing your congregation did for a neighbor that nobody wrote a press release about. In the quiet, ordinary faithfulness that is, in fact, the very thing God uses to build something new.
You are not in exile. You are in the middle of the story. And the new thing is already growing.
I am grateful to be your partner in ministry.
Blessings,
Rev. Dr. Adam Harmon
Regional Minister
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Georgia
Rev. Dr. Adam Harmon's May schedule:
May 2: Celebration of Life for Rev. Dr. Darryl Trimiew at First Christian Church of Atlanta, Tucker
May 3: Worship at Cherry Log Christian Church
May 6: Atlanta Office Hours (Johns Creek Christian Church)
May 9-10: Camp Christian Conference Center DCEF Evaluation
May 17: Worship at Central Christian Church, Augusta, and Disciples of the Way, Hephzibah
May 20: Atlanta Office Hours (Johns Creek Christian Church)
May 31: Preaching at Brookhaven Christian Church, Atlanta
