August 2026 Rock Newsletter - Deep Breath
- Robert Harris
- 7 hours ago
- 5 min read
August 2026 Rock Newsletter |
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Deep BreathA Devotional from President Mike SwalmAugust can be a tricky month, especially here in Canada. Part of the trickiness comes from the nature of our seasons: summer is a beautiful rest from the cold and snow! As August hits, we start to realize that the cold is going to be coming, and it will come quicker than we think. Further, we associate summer with rest, a time to be on vacation and a time of calm in a busy year. August, then, is the shoulder season, where we look back with wistfulness at the rest of summer and with a bit of trepidation toward the coming season: back to school for the kids, back to regular work hours for the grown-ups. Back to cold, back to snow, back to it all. And that wistfulness and trepidation is why I think August needs to also be a season of deep breath, to remind ourselves that rest is good and work is good. We were made to work and made to rest, and when those get out of balance, we’re not at our best. But the deep breath I want to talk about is not the deep breath that prepares us to plunge into work. And it’s not the deep breath that is a sigh of rest. It’s the deep breath that is thanksgiving to what has gone before and anticipation of what is to come. It is an inhale of expectation and an exhale of gratitude. When we take a deep breath in August, we think of the summer with its rest and joy with great thanks to God for what He has given us, both the good and the bad, in the summer. And we look forward to what God has planned for us in the fall and the winter. Instead of lamenting our rest and dreading our work, what would our lives look like if we saw each moment as a gift from God, both our work and our rest? What if each moment was an opportunity for anticipation and thanksgiving for what God can do? Scripture tells us that every good and perfect gift comes to us from the Father of Heavenly Lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. So this August, know that this summer was a gift, and the work waiting for you in September is EQUALLY a gift. The challenge we always face is seeing God’s hand where it’s easier to complain. So this August, let’s take a deep breath, being thankful to God for what He’s given this summer, and anticipating with joy what God is bringing this fall!  President Mike Swalm |
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After graduating from high school in 2009 I moved from Ontario to Calgary to study the Scriptures at RMC and hopefully discern the Lord’s leading along the way. I graduated with a BA in Youth Leadership Development, from RMC, in 2014. During my time there I met and married my wife Rosie (where she completed her diploma in Christian Studies majoring in music), and my desire to grow as a student of God’s Word was confirmed and strengthened. As a part of my program at RMC we moved to Claresholm, AB in 2012 for a pastoral internship at Faith Community Baptist Church, where I ended up being called to serve as associate pastor from 2013-2016. It was there that the Lord blessed Rosie and I with our two eldest daughters, and where my desire to grow as a minister of the gospel in the local church was fanned into flame. I began working on an MDiv online through The Master’s Seminary in 2016 with the intention of moving to California in 2017 to complete the remaining 3/4 of my MDiv on campus. But in May 2017 our twin daughters were born three months premature, putting those plans on hold to say the least! In answer to our prayers, the twins’ health became increasingly stable over the next two years, as did my desire to return to vocational ministry in the local church. In 2019 I responded to the call to serve as the pastor of a small church in rural eastern Ontario, bordering Quebec. While serving there the Lord blessed us with two more children; by the way, Rosie is an incredibly gifted mother and now educator to our six children! In 2021, division over the COVID restrictions resulted in me moving on from that church which ended up opening an unexpected door to pastor a new church plant in the same region called Christ Church, where I have been serving as their pastor ever since. Very few people in this area have ever heard the gospel faithfully explained, and the few who have, have generally grown cold to it. Please pray for perseverance and courage as we labour to proclaim and live Christ’s power to humble and save the lost in our region. Just as He unexpectedly did for me in rural Ontario 20 years ago! I praise God for the fellowship I enjoyed and how He used my studies at RMC to direct my path to where I am today. When I consider the various events and decisions of my life since my time at RMC the words of Fanny Crosby’s hymn that we sung in choir often comes to mind: “All the way my Savior leads me; What have I to ask beside? Can I doubt His tender mercy, Who through life has been my Guide? Heav’nly peace, divinest comfort, Here by faith in Him to dwell! For I know, whate’er befall me, Jesus doeth all things well, For I know, whate’er befall me, Jesus doeth all things well.” |
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