Our Baptismal Promises Evolving into World-Changing Realities! 

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Summer begins in earnest this month, with the arrival of the solstice around June 21st. The longest day, the shortest night, on this northern hemisphere, and then the planet moves past that point in the sun's orbit and evenings lengthen.

Strange, perhaps, to mark a season by its journey to the end, as we do with winter on the calendar’s opposite pole. But every beginning carries with it an end, just as every end is followed by a new beginning. Some just take longer to arrive, or to recognize, than others. In the spring, a 40 degree day is downright balmy after a long snowy season, but in the fall, 40 degrees is the start of sweater weather. Oh, how our context, our slow adjustments to change, impact our perceptions over time.

There's this idea called the ‘Overton Window,’ that somewhat reflects this experience. Small shifts over time move our expectations about socially acceptable behavior, until we find ourselves so far from where we started that it seems extreme, deep in winter when we began at summer. Or deeply distrustful of what we once relied on. Sometimes we catch ourselves, and sometimes we don't want to. 

But the earth still goes around the sun, the stars still shine (even when we can't see them), and we still proclaim a loving God. And those decisions we make to live our Baptismal promises might seem small in comparison, but like bulbs planted in the fall to bloom in spring, those small things add up over time into world-changing realities.​​

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Grace and Peace,

Pastor Andrew Tobias Nelson