Kirby Pines Retirement Community | The Pinecone

Reflections Maxie Dunnam By The Pinecone | January 2025 • 9 • January Vesper Services | 6:30pm | Performing Arts Center January 30 Rev Dr Birgitte French Senior Pastor Colonial Park UMC January 9 Jonathan Matthews Minister of Worship Redeemer Evangelical January 16 Rev Dennis Neenan Congregational Care Minister St. Luke's UMC January 23 Rev Chris Hodges Pastoral Care Minister Bellevue Baptist January 2 Leon Sanderson Hymnal Dedication Retired Church of Christ It poured rain the day I left. But I was filled with excitement, a strange exuberant sense of taking wing. I didn't know where I was going, but I knew what I needed. I needed a new land, a new race, a new language; and although I couldn't have put it into words then, I needed a new mystery. These are the words of a young man named Nicholas in The Magus , a novel by John Fowles. Nicholas is starting out on what is to be a totally new life, and this is the expression of his feeling. His words have become a kind of theme song for my spiritual pilgrimage. It burrowed its way into my soul not long ago when I had to make a vocational decision. It happens. As Christians, we are not permanent residents. We are pilgrims. Paul made that clear to the Galations. They were arguing about doctrine and Christian practice. Paul spared no word: “Circumcision is nothing; uncircumcision is nothing; the only thing that counts is a new creation” (Ga.6:15 NEB). Let’s claim it and live it more intentionally this new year. OUR PILGRIMAGE: A NEW RACE AUTHOR JOHN FOWLES “The most important questions in life can never be answered by anyone except oneself.” - John Fowles, The Magus From the 1968 film, The Magus , starring Anthony Quinn, Michael Caine and Candice Bergen