A Word of Blessing | Part 3 of 3
Over the past two weeks, I’ve used this space to share a series of blessings—just a small way to say thank you and to mark this season of transition with grace. If you missed either of them, you can read them on our website:
This week’s is the last. And as I look ahead to this Sunday — my final Sunday with you — I realize there’s so much I want to say. Actually, more than I have words for.
So maybe it’s enough to begin with this: Thank you!
Thank you for letting me walk with you — through the ordinary and the sacred, celebration and sorrow, change and challenge.
Thank you for your trust.
Your honesty.
Your stories and your prayers.
And for shaping me as much as I hope I’ve helped shape you.
It’s been one of the great honors of my life to be your pastor. And before I go, I want to leave you with one final blessing. The words may sound familiar—they come from my sermon last Sunday. But I offer them here again as a kind of parting benediction.
Blessing three: For the road ahead
It’s quite natural, you know—very human—to feel the uncertainty of the path ahead.
To be unsure of what’s next.
To find that change, even when good or necessary, brings more questions than answers.
May you remember that God is with you, even when the road disappears—
notice the people who show up as in-the-flesh signs of God’s love,
and never doubt that Love always makes room for the story that is your life.
There are days when it’s not the path but the voice inside that’s uncertain.
Confidence wavers.
The inner noise makes it hard to hear what’s true.
May you trust the sacred presence already alive in you—
lower your resistance to the grace that’s been there all along,
and never forget that the Spirit of God calling you beloved
has made a home in you—and isn’t going anywhere.
Sometimes shame tries to take the pen—
to script a version of your story that love never wrote.
When you stumble, the inner critic clings tight,
and you wonder if grace really applies to you.
May you believe that God is not against you, but always and forever for you—
release the voice of the accuser,
receive the voice of the Advocate,
and trust that even when you stumble,
the Spirit falls down beside you, helping you rise again.
And then—
the ordinary, beautiful, often-overlooked ways that God shows up.
You look around this community.
Open your door to a stranger.
Set a place at the table for a friend.
Or just find yourself wondering where God is in the middle of it all.
May you continue to see God in the faces beside, behind, and before you—
be the church that makes room for others to belong,
and never forget this:
as you welcome one another,
you are making more room for Christ—who has always welcomed you.
And may that welcome go with you, always.
Much love,
Pastor Gregg