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Message from Nancy Ingelson

A drive past truth

By Nancy Ingelson

Near the foot of Mound Street in the Village of East Davenport is a corner store. It caught my attention earlier this spring when some young guys started working on the outside of it. As you might expect, it became attractive with recently renovated façade and inviting new door. I actually opened it a month or so ago to explore the interior (those cozy brick walls I love!) and pick up a quick appetizer of gourmet cheese or zesty pretzels for an evening with friends.

Because I often go home by way of the Village, I watched these young men as they improved the outside and inside of this little shop with painstaking care. They were clearly invested in what they were doing, and looked like they were having fun. The place looks great today. I recall on one of those evenings wondering about all the other businesses that occupied this corner space. I thought about the people who founded and lived in this tiny mill town and traded at this very store.

It’s already gone out of business.

Now, I glance to my right with a certain sense of loss as I pass by the darkened shop these days. Was the store too tiny? Did its size imply higher prices? Was its intimate atmosphere off-putting? Was the selection of items presumed to be way too limited? What is it we’re looking for, anyway?

Are these questions tied to the larger question of what gives life meaning in the first place? I think so.

The basic human need for food and shelter, security and some kind of life-giving dominion over our days is the need God has creatively endowed us with. In this condition of lively needfulness our relationship with God gets played out. The words of Jesus in Matthew 6 remind us that seeking God first has a way of not only reducing worry and anxiety, but transforming our relationship with God. All other good things are added and experienced as gift, not the result of a quest for the things we think we can’t live without.

When empty boxes and shelves became visible through the window of the corner store in East Davenport Village, this was the truth I saw inside them. No, God’s grace doesn’t promise that every venture will succeed. God’s grace calls us to a different kind of venture altogether — one that starts with the tiniest bit of faith and thrives not on what we buy, own or sell, but on God’s outpouring of love all over our lives. Gushing with gifts like a brand new day, a chance at forgiveness, a word and touch of kindness. We miss these things when we devote our days to getting other things to take their place.

But we have the Good News to hear and to proclaim. We get to tell the world about resurrected lives and the God who wants nothing more than to call us beloved and have us believe it. Not available in any store. But free to all.

Nancy Ingelson,

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