I don’t get much sleep these days. My son just turned a month old and he is growing like a weed. Just when I think he is asleep he needs burped, or a diaper change, or he is awake, wide awake. I find it all frustrating.

The only thing that keeps me going with a positive attitude is that I know it won’t last forever. He is my third child.

Once they start sleeping through the night, feeding themselves, and taking themselves to the bathroom it is easy to forget how demanding a newborn can be. There is the part of me who wants to fast forward through the rough parts, but the reality is that newborn rough parts just become toddler rough parts and eventually they do become teenagers and young adults (full of rough parts way beyond our parental control).

I have heard a similar sentiment from a variety of people across Mennonite Church USA about our current conflict. If only “we could move on,” “get rid,” or “just make it go away,” then we will somehow be the ideal church.

But thinking that if we conclude our conflict over “homosexuality” or “same-sex orientation” that it will solve all of our issues is much like thinking that once the baby starts sleeping through the night, parenting will be a breeze.

The reality is that church history is full of make or break issues that have filled the church with so much conflict and hostility that schism seemed to be the only solution. We would be naïve to think that this will be our last make or break deal. There will always be the make or break deal. The question isn’t whether or not we are on the “right side” of the issue or the “wrong side,” after all

I once believed women shouldn’t be pastors until I had a powerful encounter with Mark 9:38-42; now I am a woman pastor. The mission of God in the world is clearly not driven by the “right side” or the “wrong side” or else it would have ceased to be centuries ago. The mission of God in the world is not a destination where we arrive and remain and maintain. The mission of God in the world is a journey.

We will make right decisions and we will make wrong decisions. We will have issues that seem to bring the entire church to her knees, but maybe that is where she belongs, else she begins to believe she is the mission and not the missionary.

Parents are not flight attendants.  We do not accompany our children to their next destination and wave goodbye. We are in it for the long haul.

Perhaps we could see our relationship with the church in the same way? Is our bond with our brothers and sisters strong enough that we would be willing to ride through the turbulence and stumble together through the rough issues? Or is it just easier to wait 500 years for a historic reconciliation ceremony? For lovers of peace and reconciliation, sometimes we aren’t very good at it.