October 16, 2026

Hello Beautiful Church,

I have a confession to make: I am not particularly good at waiting.

I like immediate results. I like knowing where I'm going, what I'm getting, and preferably when I can expect it to arrive. I am a salesperson's dream because I love being sold a beautiful possibility, and then I want to take that possibility home with me immediately.

Which means I would have made a rather terrible Old Testament patriarch.

This Sunday, we're spending some time with Abraham, who receives an extraordinary invitation from God: leave everything familiar and journey toward a future you cannot yet see.

No itinerary. No timetable. No guarantee that Abraham will live to experience the fullness of what has been promised.

And yet, he goes.

I've been thinking about that quite a bit this week, particularly because we tend to imagine faith as something that gives us certainty. We want faith to reassure us that everything will work out, that the destination is secure, that our investments of time, energy, and love will eventually produce something recognizable.

But what if faith asks something considerably more unsettling of us?

What if faithfulness means participating in something whose outcome we cannot control? What if we're being invited to begin something we will never get to finish?

And perhaps the most difficult question of all: Can we love a future that doesn't include us?

As we continue our stewardship journey, For Generations to Come, these questions have taken on particular significance for me. We have inherited an extraordinary community, shaped by generations of people who made commitments to a future they could not possibly have imagined.

And now, for a little while, this part of the story belongs to us.

On Sunday, we'll explore Genesis 12 and Hebrews 11, two texts that challenge our assumptions about promise, faithfulness, and what it means to take our place in a story that began long before we arrived.

I suspect Abraham has something to say to those of us who would very much prefer to see the finished product.

I look forward to seeing you Sunday!

With anticipation, Maria