It was a good retreat. My term is just about over, my involvement will scale down to nearly nothing. It was a strange and difficult year. The new team made decisions that were exactly opposite to mine, yet I feel that both decisions were correct. Perhaps it was one of those situations that God gives us sometimes whereby either choice will do. It was for me a time of fixing relationships, of closing the ledger of accounts on an old year, with hopefully no outstanding debts to carry over into the new.
During one of the devotions, I came across an old highlighted verse in my Bible. Isaiah 55:5 says, "Surely you will summon nations you know not, and nations that do not know you will hasten to you, because of the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, for he has endowed you with splendor." I am amazed at how God has done this for me. I had initially wanted to turn down the exco role to concentrate on this very thing, yet God himself has done it for me, so that I may not boast.
Now I step down into my personal rest. My personal disciplines had melted to nothing this past year, and I must find them again. I am glad that you have shared with me deeply, and accepted what advice I could impart, but all the relationship in the world will have no value if God does not do His redeeming work through that love, and for this, I must pray. I pray that God will give you a new heart, and put a new spirit in you; that He will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh; that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul as well as strength.
