April 24, 2024
People ask me why I came to Hawai’i fairly frequently, even after eight years as your pastor. I sometimes tell them this story:
When I came out to interview with the Search Committee, I was given the loan of a car and a fair amount of time to explore for myself. During that time I drove completely around Mauna Loa, but clouds obscured the summit throughout my visit. I saw Mauna Kea, but not Mauna Loa. I had to come back to see if the mountain was really there.
Most of the people who hear that story don’t think it’s as funny as I do.
In these last eight years we’ve labored together in extraordinary conditions. We’ve provided assistance to neighbors displaced by volcanic eruption and labored to hold our community together through significant controversy. We’ve worked on the ongoing concerns of homelessness, domestic violence, prejudice, poverty, and stress. We’ve adapted to the necessities of a global pandemic and adapted once more to a society both changed and unchanged by its demands. We’ve welcomed new people to our congregation, bid sad farewells to some who have left us, and grieved for far too many faithful friends who have gone from our care to God’s.
We’ve tried things that have worked. We’ve tried things that haven’t worked. We’ve kept doing things that, if we think about it, we could let go of. We’ve dropped some things that we’ve painfully learned need picking up again.
The answer to the question, “Why did God bring us together?” is found in what we’ve done, what we’ve learned, and how we’ve grown in the last eight years.
Thanks be to God!
In peace,
Pastor Eric
