The Clean Edge of Change

Dear Friends in Christ -

I *LOVE* music. For my birthday, my best friend, Irene, sent me a CD by an artist I've never heard of, Carrie Newcomer. (www.carrienewcomer.com) It's called "The Geography of Light," and I've listened to the whole thing about six times in the last 24 hours.

I'm constantly in awe of how God uses things and people in my life to string things together - a notion here, an impression there, a bit of goodness, a flake of challenge. On this CD is a song that speaks to me on several levels. One of those levels has to do with some of the change that's happening at St. Paul's.

Over the past couple of months, St. Paul's has been in a time of transition: our beloved Director of Youth Ministries resigned, and we've been seeking someone to fill the void she left. Of course, no one can do that exactly. Nor should they. If we are truly a community of God, then what we're looking for is not someone to "take her place" or "fill her shoes," but someone to make the mark on us that God is calling him/her to make.

It's HARD WORK for me and, I suspect, for all of us, to invite God to keep us open for something, someone new. One of Carrie's songs is speaking to this wondering, fearing, hoping place in me. I hope it speaks to you, too. You can hear it by going to www.carrienewcomer.com and then clicking on albums, then "the geography of light" then "the clean edge of change." The lyrics are below.

As we stand together on the clean edge of change, may we share that weightless, breathless feeling that comes from trusting ourselves entirely to God.

Faithfully,
Janet+

The Clean Edge of Change

First there is the folding in,
To gather light and dark to you.
The journey down so far that it,
Has nowhere else to go but through.

I thought if I tried hard enough,
With endless motion like a bribe,
As if by this the will of God,
Could be bent to my version of right.

Chorus: What happens next is nearly weightless,
The opening where we stand breathless,
On the clean edge of change.

She cannot live beneath my wings,
No more with he see seventy.
How many mornings did I wake,
And wished that it’d be you I'd see.

Chorus

Bridge: And who am I, who makes this sound,
Who rode the shadow all the way down?
To the Clean Edge of Change

In the clear space of knowing that
There’s as many names for dark as for light,
I am choosing mostly now to speak,
The ones that get me through the night.

But always,with humility,
With a worn now but a grateful heart.
Having sang so recently,
Full-throated In the dark.

Chorus

First there is the folding in,
To gather light and dark to you,
The journey down so far that it,
Has nowhere else to go but through.