June 22, 2026 | Moments Almanac | Departure

Welcome to Moments Almanac. Today is June 22nd, 2026. I hope you're having a great start of this work week. June 22nd gives us two men who never saw the end of their work. The first is Matthew Henry. On this day in 1714, he died while traveling through England. The day before he had been thrown from his horse. Unable to continue, he was taken into a stranger's house where he quietly slipped into eternity at the age of fifty one. His great commentary on scripture remained unfinished, ending somewhere in the book of Acts. As death approached, he told a friend, a life spent in the service of God and communion with him is the most comfortable and pleasant life that anyone could live in this world. The work was left incomplete, or so it seemed. Thirteen ministers eventually joined together to finish the commentary after Henry was gone. The pages he never wrote were written by others who carried the labor forward. The second scene that we see on this date is one from Jonathan Edwards' life. On june twenty second, seventeen fifty, the church he had served for twenty three years voted to dismiss him as pastor. The vote was overwhelming. 230 to 23. Imagine it. The most influential preacher in New England standing before a congregation he loved while they showed him the door. Others said he received the verdict with calmness and without bitterness. The church thought it was ending his story. Instead, God was turning the page. Edwards accepted a missionary assignment among a tribe of Indians near Stockbridge, a remote, underfunded frontier settlement far from the influence and recognition he once enjoyed. And there, in what would have been called an exile, he wrote Freedom of the Will, a work still regarded by many as the greatest theological book ever produced in America. Years later he was called to lead Princeton. He arrived, accepted responsibility, received a smallpox inoculation, and died only months later. Like Matthew Henry, he left work unfinished, or so it seemed, because God's kingdom has never depended on one person seeing the final chapter. One man left a commentary, others completed. Another left ideas generations would carry. Both remind us that faithfulness is less measured by finishing everything, but more by faithfully tending the portion God has placed in our hands. Your portion is enough. Work it faithfully. Our scripture today is 2 Timothy 4, 7 and 8. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award me on that day, and not only to me, but also to all those who have longed for his appearing. That's today's scattered moments. Until tomorrow, take care. Notice the scattered moments and share the grace.