This is not about gift cards or Hobbits; it’s really about Love.

Like many of us, I have felt the world and all its urgency too much with me. There’s no need to create another litany here of all the abuses of human dignity and collective well-being we bear witness to. The photo that accompanies this note shows a tangle of roots, limbs, branches and vines overgrowing a path; we can’t see whether the path continues beyond our line of sight. The small way forward might not be accessible to all. This photo could be a metaphor for the World of Church in 2025. There are lots of roots and branches thrust upon what was a well-defined path. Changes in demographics. Struggling pledge drives. What children and youth need since COVID. We could name more. How do we navigate, together, in an uncertain direction?

By Love.

My certainty stems from my faith in our Universalist heritage that affirms there is no being outside of the transcendent force of Love. And it echoes in some of my favorite novels, Like 1984. Fahrenheit 451. The Hunger Games. You might wonder, do you really need more dystopia in your life right now?? Fair question. But these stories are not just about human cruelty; they are about ordinary heroes — people who look like us — dropped into extraordinary circumstances. Like it or not.

One unlikely hero, a hobbit named Frodo Baggins, found himself on a quest that led him on paths like the one in this photo. He complained to his companion, the wizard Gandalf, “I wish this need not have happened in my lifetime.” Many of us would agree with that today. But Gandalf tells him that is not in our power to control. All we can do is decide what we will do with the time that’s been given to us.

So we must navigate this path, but we have tools to guide us — practices of spiritual leadership like discernment, faithful risking, and covenant.

And gift cards.

Recently I visited a congregation preparing for its annual church auction to support their pledge drive. Goods and services and a table full of gift cards, purchased from local businesses by members, were offered. While folks were perusing the offerings and writing bids on papers, a church leader spoke. She talked about their recently discerned mission, about their hopes for their future as a congregation, about the ministries the pledges support. And she talked about gift cards.

In a capitalist culture, we would be wise to bid $15 for a $20 gift card. We get a bargain; the church gets $15 it didn’t have before. But she invited the gathered friends to consider purchasing the gift card for at least 5% over its face value. Consider: fellow congregants spent $20 of their own funds because they wanted the church auction to raise as much money as possible. Do we honor their donation by underbidding? By the end of that evening, every gift card had been purchased for 10% to 20% above face value, and the auction had raised double its anticipated goal.

When we center Love, it becomes more clear how we make it through the path, no matter how gnarled, muddy, and fearsome it may be. Love makes a way out of no way. We don’t need to see beyond the next turn to take the faithful next step. Indeed, we may trust in the words of Frodo Baggins’ beloved friend Sam Gamgee, who saved his friend — and the quest — with these words: “It’s like the great stories, Mr. Frodo, the ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were, and sometimes you didn’t want to know the end because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad has happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing this shadow, even darkness must pass. A new day will come, and when the sun shines, it’ll shine out the clearer. I know now folks in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn’t. They kept going because they were holding on to something. That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo, and it’s worth fighting for.”

Friends, please remember your NER staff and our whole UUA are with you on this twisty-turny path. May we be guided by Love as we take our next faithful steps, together.

PS: please share good news stories from your congregation with us. We want to celebrate with you and you may even see your story here someday!