After the Ward's Departure - further reflections

Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. -- Gospel of John chapter 16 verse 7.

By quoting this after the title of my post, I don't mean to say that the Wards were Jesus. Rather, I wonder how the apostles felt when Jesus told them this. I wonder if they felt a sense of dispair, thinking that they didn't want the change it would mean. Perhaps they didn't want the helper - they wanted Jesus.

But the change his departure to the Father worked for the apostles was truly profound.

Now the change the Father has worked in our congregation after the departure of the Wards is not on the same scale as the coming of the Holy Spirit, but it is pretty significant. People who have not been teaching - who often and repeatedly said, "No" - those people are now in classrooms. Meetings that were closed because of lack of participation are reopening with more people particiapting than before.

Perhaps we had to be afflicted so that we might learn to trust God. Perhaps we needed to be pushed to take God more seriously. Perhaps we needed upheaval. Perhaps Psalm 119:71 applies here: It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes.

My hope is that we will continue in this positive dirrection - that this is no flash in the pan, but an ongoing, growing time in our lives.