General Synod Devotion: What You Leave Behind

Scripture: Ecclesiastes 7:10 – “Do not say, ‘Why were the former days better than these?’ For it is not from wisdom that you ask this.” (NRSVUE)

As I was packing up after the final day of General Synod late last night, I realized I had lost my delegate bag. It was left at the Convention Center, so it was either thrown away or I will leave for the airport before I can retrieve it from lost-and-found. Inside was my coloring book and colored pencils that helped me relax during long plenary sessions, my best charging cord, a not-inexpensive power bank for my phone, and a notebook containing notes from the last four years of General Synods, annual meetings, preaching camps, workshops, and informal meetings. It’s the last one that stings, since that can never be replaced.

And in many ways, my time at General Synod cannot be replaced either. There is nothing quite like the tension and boredom of sitting at the delegates’ tables. The quips, questions, and insights, especially from the younger people. I think it is a shining example of why the UCC is great. We have so many gifts when we work together, from the national setting to the local churches. This is perhaps especially true when we disagree, as was evident in several sessions this time around, including a difficult conversation about the situation in Palestine yesterday. God created us to be unique, with specific spiritual gifts and bodies and souls that are not meant to fit into clean categories. But God also created us to be together, to love one another, and to shape a hopeful future side by side.

This was my second General Synod as a delegate, and I do not know when I will have another opportunity to be one. Middle aged, cis, het, white clergy like me are a dime a dozen, and as I strongly believe the church is best served by dazzling diversity in experience and wisdom. It may be decades before I can get another turn on the ride. As exhausting and as frustrating as it can be, it is one of my favorite parts of ministry and I will miss it. Like my notebook, there are parts of my experience that can never be replaced. This is especially true of the friends I made along the way, colleagues from far away who it is unlikely I will ever see again.

But as Qoheleth reminds us, life is more than what you leave behind. It is how you move ahead. The lessons you learn and the people you love are never truly lost when you have them in your heart through the challenges and joys of the future. I will always be grateful for my chance to have a voice in the shaping of the UCC and to have so many spiritual gifts mirroring off each other. But it is that refracted light that will guide me closer to God and closer to the Kin-dom.

Prayer: God, help me remember with fondness. Let me hope with passion. Let me walk in courage and love. There are mighty adventures ahead. Amen.