These are two words I will never hear again. At least, not in the way that Wallace Cox said them every Sunday morning for the past year at 9:30 on the dot. You see, Wallace passed away last week. He was a man much admired in our church community and within the wider community of Haskell. Wallace was one of those people who made you feel welcome, important, and loved. He was easy to visit with and always had time to let you bend his ear.
Wallace's passing gave me the opportunity to reflect back on the past few years. When I first received my calling into full time ministry I suppose I didn't really know what that would mean. If I had, I'm not sure I would have been emotionally ready for it. When my family and I moved from Muleshoe to Wilmore we had to leave many friends and family behind. We left a community that we knew and that knew us. We left people who have been important in my life for as long as I can remember. We left the comfort and security of the known for a new life that was foreign.
| First United Methodist Church, Muleshoe, TX |
After we arrived in Kentucky, we slowly settled in and made new friends. We adopted our Sunday school class as our new faith community where we could grow spiritually with brothers and sisters in Christ. We got used to the colder temperatures and the extra rainfall. We really fit in and we loved it. But, once again, we were called away from a place we had made home. It was time to leave and to move on with the mission that God had placed on our lives for his namesake.
| Estes Chapel, Asbury Theological Seminary campus |
So we have been here in Haskell right at a year. I have continued to learn and grow in my own spiritual life and we are doing everything we know to do to make Haskell our hometown. But honestly, it is getting harder to do that. Because I know that my family will not be in Haskell forever. A part of the Methodist system is that you agree to go where you are sent. I have a lot of respect for that and I continue to trust the leadership of our conference with those decisions.
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| First United Methodist Church, Haskell, TX |
I know that no matter how long we stay in one place that God is with us. I know wherever we go that God is already there. I know wherever we are sent that there are men and women we will grow to love, just as we have here. I also know that even as hard as it is to say goodbye to people, for whatever reason, that the love and the joy I have gained from knowing these people far outweighs the pain.
At the end of 1 Corinthians 15, St. Paul makes this statement, "Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain." I strive to remember these words from St. Paul as I continue to walk the path that the LORD has placed before me. I seek to continue to labor for his glory, even if it means the painful reality of loving people only to move on again.
When we left Muleshoe, a good friend of mine dedicated this song to me and my family. It is a song I have come to cherish when it's time to say goodbye. And so now, as I finish my farewell to Wallace, I play this song for my brothers and sisters in the faith who I have had to leave. I am a better man and a better Christian for knowing each one of you. And even though I miss you, I also know that we continue our relationship through the Communion of the Saints empowered by the Holy Spirit.
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