May 2026

Letter from the Committee

Faithfully Bound

Spinach, radishes, strawberries, blueberries and more. Spring has sprung, and nature is already well underway in producing tasty harvests. Have you been trying to nurture any new seedlings into maturity before the summer heat strikes? It might be the confession of a non-green thumb, but it seems nature’s humor is to let weeds spring up and thrive in the ideal conditions you lay out for the desirable plants that persist in stubborn frailty.

Yet, as we begin NITOC 2026, with its emphasis on roots in truth, we are prompted with a personal question. Are you tending to seeds or weeds in the field of your heart?

A seed must crack and ultimately be destroyed for the seedling to emerge and eventually grow. The Lord plants seeds of truth within us (James 1:21). When we suffer amidst a broken and hurting world, the sense of our utter frailty can feel overwhelming, and encouraging truth might feel too distant to hold sufficient power. But what if that pressure is allowed to be the very thing that “cracks” the seed to bring forth something new and bright in our souls? Can we trust our Father to make something beautiful rise from our ashes? While the “right” answer is clear, the true answer is more elusive to grasp.

So, let us encourage you as we remind each other that when we are weak, He is strong (2 Cor 12:9-10). When we are faithless, He is faithful (2 Tim 2:13). When our hold on our Anchor of truth is loose and weak, He faithfully clings to us. In His infinite and unconditional, covenant love, He binds Himself to us… in sickness and in health. When we are broken, He tends to us with the unrelenting promise of complete restoration (Ps 147:3-4). You are His. Cling to this hope that we are faithfully bound and tethered to our Savior.

In The Return of the King, Samwise observes “a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty forever beyond its reach.” Similarly, may the vibrant spring around you remind you of God's hands holding you, whether you face storm or sunshine.

Your Stoa Alumni Committee,

Samuel Durand (AR), Nicole Kaiser (MT), Elizabeth Stapleton (OK)

Tolkien, J. R. R. The Return of the King. 50th anniversary ed., Houghton Mifflin, 2004.

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