“Courage and Good Night.” You have to be of a certain age or demographic for that phrase to sound familiar. “Courage and Good Night” was Dan Rather’s sign off after the CBS Evening News. It’s like Walter Cronkite’s “And that’s the way it is,” Edward R. Murrow’s “Good night and good luck,” or Charles Osgood’s ironic “See you on the radio,” but “Courage and Good Night” is more directive.
Courage is this year’s theme for the Georgetown Ecumenical Wholeness Service. Last Month, Rev. Vicky Joy McClure shared Courage to Hear, and in September Rev. Mary Sallet shared Courage to See, so it seems fitting that our focus this month is Courage to Discern after we have both seen and heard courage.
I discerned a call to ministry 30 years ago, and left a stable career in a Navy lab to attend seminary. Then I served as a local church pastor. Then, Suzanne and I transitioned to overseas missions and now returning stateside, debrief missionaries who have left their field to retire, or change fields. With all these significant life changes I feel like I should be an expert on the practice of discernment but I’m not, each time the call was different.
“Sometimes God calls you to what you’ll say yes to,” our Team Lead used to joke when we served in Ghana. “…and then once you’ve answered that call (and moved your family half way around the world) God changes it.” Maybe your call changes to what God really wanted you to do in the first place, but if you had been asked, would have declined, but now that you’re here and see the need, you discern more of what your call requires.
Courage to first discern your call, and then courage to change what that call leads to. Discernment and courage are two essential aspects of answering God’s Call, and that will be the focus of the message at 6:30 on November 24 at San Gabriel Presbyterian Church, 5404 Williams Drive in Georgetown, TX.
Courage and let us see you there!
Rev. Steve Buchele
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