Pastoral Letter: Continuing the Journey - Returning to the Rhythm

Dear Simsbury UMC family, 

Over these weeks, we have been holding three phrases together—not as a slogan, not as a checklist, but as words we can return to when life becomes loud. 

Knowing God.
Rooted in Christ.
Growing in the Spirit.

Knowing God, we said, is less about mastery and more about orientation: a heart turning back, attention returning, eyes lifted toward the One who gives help. Rooted in Christ, we remembered, begins not with achievement but with receiving: “As you have received Christ Jesus the Lord… continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him.” And growing in the Spirit is not pressure to improve; it is fruit—life forming over time, often quietly.

So what now?

Not forward in a hurry. But back—back into a shared rhythm.

Most of us do not lose faith in one dramatic moment. We drift by inches. We scatter by habit. We become tired in ways we barely notice. And then one day, we realize we have been living as though everything depends on our own strength.

This is why these words matter. They are not a performance plan. They are a way home.

When we feel scattered, we return our attention to God.
When we feel unsteady, we remember where we are rooted.
When we feel pressured, we trust the Spirit’s patient work.

Return does not have to be big. It can be small enough to fit inside an ordinary week: a single verse you stay with, a single breath of prayer you offer honestly, a single moment of worship where you let your shoulders drop, a single act of kindness that does not come from proving anything—only from love.

And here is a grace I want us to remember: when we return, we do not return alone.

One of the gifts of being the church is that, on the days when one heart cannot lift its eyes, another heart can. On the days when one person cannot pray, someone else can carry the prayer for a while. In worship, in Scripture read aloud, in bread broken and shared, we borrow faith from one another—and find that God is still near.

So, for this week, I offer one gentle invitation.

Notice where your attention has been going.
Notice what has been holding you underneath everything.
And then, without judging yourself, return—however you can.

May the grace and peace of God rest upon your home and upon every place where your life unfolds. And may these words—Knowing God, Rooted in Christ, Growing in the Spirit—quietly shape our shared rhythm, our shared instinct, and our shared hope.

With you on the journey,
DH