Winds of Change

The above referenced song was made relatively famous when recorded and sung by Julio Iglesias and Willie Nelson in 1984. The song was about all the women they had ever dated!

But the chorus says a bit about life, how the “winds of change” move us to surprising places.

The winds of change moved me from a planned career in education to theological school. As that time ended, the winds of change abated for they were blowing us to the mid-west, but we stayed here as the winds picked up and shifted Judy into an educational ministry and blew me to Stow, Massachusetts.

Then a gust of wind took us to Tewksbury and after a while shifted east to where I was wafted along currents into theological education at Andover Newton Theological School. As some gale force winds subsided here at First-Calvary Baptist Church those shifting winds brought me to you.

But here’s the good news — we aren’t ever dependent upon unpredictable weather and the ways of the jet stream when it comes to the “winds” of life. All the way through it has been God’s hand that has guided the direction of life’s winds in my life, indeed in all our lives. And so I begin my leave-taking from First-Calvary with great confidence and hope because I have learned great lessons about trust in God for the unknown future and where the winds of life will take me.

My prayer for all of you in the church is that you too give yourselves over to trust in God as you begin to feel the winds of change in this community of faith. It was just about 15 years ago to the day that I began talking with the pastoral search committee from this church. Those were times of great change and we all trusted in and were affirmed by God through it all. And so … we do it again, we trust and seek God’s affirmation as the winds of change once more grow a bit stronger.

In trust and hope,

Rev. Dr. Richard E. Haley