March 2025

Letter from the Committee

Flexibility 

“PIVOT!... PIVOT!” These infamous words remind us of a classic scenario where several friends attempt to move a couch into a new apartment. The words also bear testimony to the pattern of our daily reality. Life has a way of keeping us on our toes. In one moment, we are moving in one direction, and the next we can be jerked into the opposite direction. We have seasons of slumber and seasons of wakefulness, but the stream of our days is never truly static.

Sometimes feeling like a bad penny, change is ever-present in our lives. However, flexing with changes in scope of work, relationships, or daily routines also creates space for personal growth, increased understanding, and new perspectives. Within our community, we have a vibrant conglomeration of individuals endowed with a unique set of God-given gifts, skills, desires, personalities, and experiences.

Today, how can we reinforce and encourage one another in the strengths we are given? Whose shoes can you step into today to promote deeper harmony?

In relationship with our Savior, we are called to be clay in the Potter’s hands, allowing ourselves to be molded into new creations as we follow His lead. In both our strengths and weaknesses, in both our best and our worst, we must surrender to the Lord’s process of yielding fruit in and through our lives (Eph 4:22-24). Flexibility is an invitation to the Lord to enter our current state to shape our future lives. It is trusting Him with both means and end.

Psalm 32:8: “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you.”

This time of year, spring is unfolding all around us. May the new buds and tender seedlings emerging everywhere remind us to live flexibly and open-handedly before the Lord. May we be elastic in the Lord’s hands, submitted to the new life He is fostering in our community and in our hearts. His loving eyes are upon us! Let’s make way for Him to define the direction of our steps.

Your Stoa Alumni Committee,

Samuel Durand (AR), Nicole Kaiser (MT), Alyssa Sloneker (AR), Denise Sprimont-Vasquez (VA), Elizabeth Stapleton (OK), and David Vasquez (VA)

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