By Andrea Lingle

The dishes have dried. The crumbs and snippets of yarn have been swept up. The sticky notes have been tabulated. National Gathering 2019 is a snapshot; taken, shared, and finished. In that moment, at that place, we were the Missional Wisdom Foundation, gathered.

Why do we gather? Because to be missional is to be sent, and to be sent you have to be sent from. In Simple Harmony, Larry Duggins describes a cruciform spiritual life. Pouring out must be balanced by filling up. Serving must be balanced by worship. Missional living must be balanced by gathering. To be sent from emptiness leads to burn out, cynicism, and isolation. We gather so that we can tell our stories, so that we remember that none of us are sent out alone, so that we remember that we also must receive.

So that we can be filled up.

On the night that Jesus broke bread with his disciples he asked them to receive nourishment and remember. Now, during these fifty days of Easter, we discover what it means to encounter and bear the Resurrected Christ. Don't rush through these weeks. The sending of Pentecost will come soon enough. We will take up the way, but, for these Easter weeks, be filled with nourishment and remembrance. Be woven into the gentle embrace of receiving.