"Forward with faith"
MINISTER'S MOMENT
CHARLOTTE AUSTIN

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though inwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

(2 Corinthians 4:16- 18)

More than one person would like to be able to turn back the hands of time, back to a day that used to be, back to a time that maybe never was, but just seemed to be. We'd like to go back to before a decision was made, to before a loss was felt, to before a word was spoken. How can we begin again? The life-cycle of a butterfly is an interesting study. At one time the butterfly was nothing more than a caterpillar in a cocoon. In its dark cave something happened to the lowly worm. Wings were formed and delicately painted. A metamorphosis, a change of life, transpired. Can something like that happen to us? Not exactly like that, but we can begin again. We can go beyond our past. Jesus called it a "new birth." I cannot explain it anymore than I can explain what takes place in the darkness of a cocoon, but I know something happens. People who have given up on themselves and on life suddenly have renewed hope. Attitudes change. God performs a work of grace in a person's spirit. Helen Keller once said about her blindness, "I do not understand it, but I have learned the overcoming of it." Why should we want to go backward when we can go forward? Why should we long for yesterday when there is the newness of today and tomorrow? Our God is one who can make all things neweven us. Believe it and be blessed. Eternal Father, we long for a place and a time when life was more serene and simple. We know we can't go back. Help us to go forward with faith, hope, and love. Amen.

Rev. Charlotte Austin McCary's Chapel United Methodist Church