Together in the Wilderness

See, I am doing a new thing. Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland. (Isaiah 43:19)

This past weekend a group of churches in Hamilton hosted their annual Conference.  Online.  Because everything is online these days.  This was the TrueCity Conference. 

Many of you already know it, others of you perhaps not, but TrueCity is a network of 15 or so churches who’ve committed to collaborate “Together for the Good of the City.”  And I’ve noticed over the past seven years here in Hamilton (because today is exactly the seven year mark) that everywhere I look and see good collaborative efforts to address homelessness through housing, to aid refugee claimants, to create social enterprise, to stem food insecurity, to address mental health, to support local agencies working for those on the margins, or any number of other things supportive of the common good in Hamilton: I see TrueCity people. 

So, this network of churches “together for the good of the city,” including our own, held a 2021 conference with the theme “Together in the Wilderness.”  Here’s what the website said:

“Injustice, divisive discourse, instability … this last year has been a year like no other. Living through a worldwide pandemic, we have all experienced disappointment and loss compounded by isolation. We shifted, and learned that love meant keeping our distance, a counterintuitive gesture that resulted in profound grief for what was before. 

WE HAVE BEEN LIVING A WILDERNESS EXPERIENCE.

And we’ve wondered what God might be up to. What might He want to accomplish, through us, in this wilderness season? What might He be preparing us for? What does it look like for us - together in the wilderness - to trust Him?”

If you’d like to check out some of the wrestling with and answers found to just those questions, you can check out the conference videos, with the link to YouTube here in the notes.

Part of the answer to those questions came through a verse that resonated through the conference and that has stuck with me afterwards.  It’s this one from Isaiah 43 that I read at the beginning.  “See, I am doing a new thing,” God says, “I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” 

As God’s people wandering through the wilderness, we are not alone.  We have sisters and brothers in Christ across this city reminding us of God’s faithfulness.  But our God Himself is also speaking out: he remains that God who does new things.  Who brings life out of places of death.  Who turns wastelands into rivers. 

I’m not sure just when those promises will be realized, but I do know that’s the kind of God I follow.  A God who brings life and surprising newness in the strangest of places.  I’m encouraged in that hope again following time spent with God’s people in Hamilton at TrueCity.