A Message from Pastor Evan – June 20, 2024

Rev Evan Dodge

Dear St Paul’s family:

I want to share with you a poem I recently reread. It was a reminder to me that God is constantly using the soil of our lives to grow us for our good and for his glory. Maybe you need that reminder, and I hope this blesses you as much as it did me.

Harrowing
by Parker J. Palmer

The plow has savaged this sweet field
Misshapen clods of earth kicked up
Rocks and twisted roots exposed to view
Last year’s growth demolished by the blade.

I have plowed my life this way
Turned over a whole history
Looking for the roots of what went wrong
Until my face is ravaged, furrowed, scarred.

Enough. The job is done.
Whatever’s been uprooted, let it be
Seedbed for the growing that’s to come.
I plowed to unearth last year’s reasons—

The farmer plows to plant a greening season.