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On the road again!

Local pastor relocating for a new position in Red Deer

BY ROSS SMILLIE

Over the summer I agreed to take a new job in Red Deer so after 21 years in Lacombe, we are leaving. Therese and I moved house at the end of September, and I finish working at St. Andrew’s at the end of October. It will be hard to leave Lacombe and all the friends we have made here. Red Deer is not very far, but it is far enough to mean big changes in our lives.

We got lucky and sold our house in Lacombe quite quickly, and found a nice house in the southeast side of Red Deer. That might serve well as a dwelling place for a few more years, until the call of God, or our own aging bodies, require us to move again. But I really hate moving, so with any luck, they will carry me out feet first!

The writer of the letter to the Hebrews holds up the example of Abraham as a model of faith, because Abraham followed the call of God into a strange land.

He left his home in search of a better one. In a way, he knew that even when he was at home, he not in his real home, and needed to go on a journey so that he could find his true home. And so, for many years, he lived in a tent, moving continuously, while in search of a home with a real foundation, whose architect and builder is God. In one way, he was homeless, but in another, he had made a permanent home in the only way possible.

In this life there are no permanent dwellings, only temporary ones.

It is on the journey that we must find our home. And it is fellow travelers who are our companions on the journey. I want to say thank you to those of you who have been my companions on this marvelous journey of life. You have made my sojourn in Lacombe a very happy one.

Ross Smillie is the pastor of St. Andrew’s United Church in Lacombe.