Articles
Farewell
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Finally, brethren, farewell. Become complete. Be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you (2 Cor. 13:11).
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For the last seventeen months I have been churning out these little daily email articles as a means of providing spiritual content through the COVID restrictions. Sometimes writing these articles has been a chore; occasionally my mind and my fingers have been in sync, and the words have poured forth in a flurry of inspiration. Some of the articles have been not too shabby; others probably never should have seen the light of day. Always, it's been a rewarding opportunity to dig into topics that have eternal significance. God alone knows the full impact they have had.
But the time has come to bring this little enterprise to a close. This will be my final Winglets article.
Tomorrow (8/15), I will be delivering my last sermon as the evangelist at the Pleasant Valley Church of Christ. I am officially retiring, and it is appropriate that I back out of this writing role to make way for the new evangelist, Sam Bray. Sam's first sermon is next Sunday (8/22).
Over the years I have done a lot of writing. I am much more comfortable expressing my thoughts on paper than in public discourse. Beginning in 2000, my writing became standardized in a weekly bulletin (Wings) distributed at every Sunday morning service. At the start of the pandemic in March 2020, the weekly Wings articles gave way to these daily Winglets emails, but the purpose was the same: to offer thought-provoking insights into the wisdom of God's word.
The guiding philosophy in all my writing has been the conviction that the Bible has the power to transform minds and lives for the better--if people would take the trouble to read it and internalize its message. That's why every article opens with one or two Scripture references. The thoughts that flow from that starting point are designed to challenge the reader's thinking and elicit a response. Judging from the many comments I've received from readers, I'm hopeful this effort has achieved its intended purpose.
One of my goals in retirement is to publish some of these articles in a more permanent form. I also hope to tackle a book idea I've been working on for a while. I will occasionally post new content on my personal website, https://beyondgrasping.com. The site has been dormant for several years, but it will provide a good platform for staying active going forward, albeit in an independent capacity. I have also created a Substack page (https://beyondgrasping.substack.com). I'll play around with that for a while to see if I want to migrate my material there. In my continuing role as elder, I will continue to send out a Weekly Update email every Saturday to keep the local members informed of events and prayer needs.
If I have only one parting message to all of you, it's this: read the Bible. Regularly. Purposefully. Prayerfully. Intensely. In reading the Bible, you will encounter wisdom that will equip you for this life and for the life to come. In a world that has lost its marbles, it's an essential habit for maintaining our composure.
May the God of love and peace be with you.
--David
