You will keep that person in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you, because they trust in you. Isaiah 26.3 (translation mine) I'm going to share a little more about me in today's post (not that I don't mostly just end up doing that anyway...) - I keep the Sabbath. Now, it's not some legalistic thing I do with a million and one rules or lists of 'I shall not...', and I absolutely don't do it because I think it'll get me into heaven or that people who don't do it won't be invited. Not at all! I keep Sabbath because it injects rhythm and purpose into my weekly walk with God.
I try to do things on Sabbath that will direct me towards God - I spend time reading the Bible, worshipping and praying, I sometimes study books about faith and God, I talk with people and make sure I know how they're really doing, and sometimes I get the chance to make things while doing some of that as well! I love creating as I worship, or pray, and making things that focus me on some aspect of God's character, either alone or alongside a friend. Last Sabbath I got to do just that. For my housemate's birthday a couple of months ago I'd gotten her a lino-cutting starter pack, and we'd liked it so much that we'd gotten some more pads, and then we hadn't really done much with them. After we enjoyed a good lunch together (with cheesecake for dessert - my all time favourite!), we decided to do some printing. I had this verse in my head from earlier as it was the one sent to me that day to illustrate for my church's Look up in Lockdown post, and I just sat there reflecting on this idea of "perfect peace". And in that day, of not having to worry about productivity or work; and in that meal, of being open and true with my husband and closest friend; and in the discussion we'd had about the intricacy and beauty of the flowers that adorned the table, sent to me from my sister earlier in the week - I felt a sense of that perfect peace. So I made a print of one of the carnations that stood in the little jar of water in front of me. To remind me of that beautiful time when there was no fretfulness, no rush, and no worry, and to remind me that this is what God wants for each of us. Peace. Shalom. Wholeness. Perfect peace. Stay safe, and take care!
0 Comments
I've just been away for a 5-day European Youth Congress in Valencia, Spain. It's been AMAZING! For a start, it was my first time in Spain, which did not disappoint! It's been beautifully sunny most days, and wonderfully cloudy on others, cutting out just a little of that heat! Valencia has a beautiful town centre, and a stunning beach where I witnessed crazy people doing beach aerobics and volley ball in close to 40 degrees heat!!! 😯 And where I stayed in the sea until well after sunset because it was still so nice and warm! Wouldn't dare to do that in England! But the real reason why it's been amazing is that I came into this week feeling like a mess. I'm unsure exactly what my future will hold, and I guess I was - a little bit - doubting that even God knew it anymore. Which, of course, I didn't really think when I thought about it, but you know how you can know things but not feel them sometimes - well it was like that. But I am going home so confident that my God is a good God, who loves me and does not leave me. And though I can't see that far into the journey ahead, I know that God is Lord of that entire journey, and journeys with me in love and grace. There has just been such an atmosphere of joy here this week. True joy; unhindered and unceasing! Joy in worshipping an amazing and, actually, beautiful God. I think I call God beautiful a lot, without really thinking about it, but the way God loves and is interested in me, and made all that is around me, is actually beautiful. And so I come out of this week excited, more than anything else. Excited about what God has in store for me, and where he might lead me! Because I'm convinced it will be good. I have faith in an amazing, wonderful, inspiring, loving, challenging, exciting, beautiful God! "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." (Heb 11.1)
In the shower this morning (for me, one of those places I remember all those strange things long since assumed forgotten) I suddenly remembered something our school chaplain at my Church of England secondary school had told us about in a 6th-form Act of Worship: a way of being still. The basic idea is to enable you to just be still with God, to clear your mind of all the busyness, that you might be able to hear/feel/know God more. You pick a phrase; it can be from a Bible verse, or a worship song, or something and then you repeat it, losing one word each time and then gaining it back. The example I now remember he gave was "Be still and know that I am God." The example I "remembered" in my shower earlier was 'be still for the presence of the Lord', but both work! So I stood there, the hot water pouring over me, letting it pound (albeit lightly) against the muscles I'd just been pressuring in our rowing outing, and I turned my mind away from all the things going through it that I wanted to get done today, and I said, "Be still, for the presence of the Lord". And I stood in the silence. I waited, and after a little while my mind wandered, so I refocused, moved those things away again and said, "Be still, for the presence of the". I kept this going, each time my mind got distracted, less and less often, using the phrase to refocus; "Be still, for the presence of"; "Be still, for the presence"; "Be still, for the"; "Be still, for"; "Be still"; "Be"; And then back out the same way... And a few lines in, I felt... peaceful. I felt calm, and whole, and not overly busy, not tired, not even just like I needed to rush to the next thing because there was so much I actually really wanted to do - I just felt like I was with God, or like he was with me. And like that was the most important thing I could've been doing. It felt fulfilling, and just spending that short time set me right for the rest of the day; I went into the day not thinking just about all the tasks I needed to get done, but also about the people around me whilst I was doing them. So that going to the church coffee morning and talking to people before settling down on the back table with my book and laptop; and taking a slightly longer break at lunch time with my friend, were more important than using every possible moment to do my work. I mean, I still have a long way to go, but it's a start. This also means that I'm writing this now, and not at midnight again after finishing all the work - much more preferable! :-)
I'm well into the final team of the year now - just one more week with Team 4 and then I have 4 days before I too am flying home to sunny England (or not, as I've heard!)! ;-P And as we go to some of the projects and do some of the things that I've been doing and going to all summer, I'm becoming increasingly aware that that was the last time. The last time I'll walk into that village and be greeted by small children with loud voices shouting, "Rebekah! REBEKAH!" The last time I'll sit around having beautiful conversations with friends I've made here and feel like I've known forever. The last time I'll dance and sing praises to God with the most joyful men who have come through so much. The last time I'll pick up that one little friend who is ALWAYS happy to see me and ALWAYS wants a hug! Even the last time I'll traipse around at the top of the mountain making sure the team are keeping up and not tripping over oddly arranged steps! I say 'last time' in the sense of it being, at least, the last time for the time being, but as the song I'm currently listening to on my Rend Collective Spotify playlist says; "[God's] not finished with me yet!", and I certainly am not claiming to know the future!
So for now, it is the last time. Yesterday I went to Nazareth House for the last time. We played and we danced - I cuddled and I laughed. And I saw again how incredible Sister Mercedes is. How perfectly humble she is and how beautifully understated. I've been working on a side project to raise awareness about the current situation for Nazareth House and so in my time between teams I went back and was taking photos and stuff, so that I could make some publicity material and then I could show that to her to get her permission to use it. As most parents are, she's very protective of her children and doesn't want their photos to end up just anywhere and so not many people have photos of the kids there; so if I can make some materials that she is happy with, other people can then use those to share the story and situation of the house! So anyway, I needed a photo of her and originally she was like, "Nooo, nooo" all embarrassedly, and then she dragged Claire in too, so it wasn't just her, and Claire finally managed to get her to have one on her own; and she is beautiful. But she NEVER wants it to be about her. To the degree that if we give her the comfortable chair, she'll drag it aside and find one of the kids toys (a MOST uncomfortable seat!) to sit on! Whenever she tells her story, she wants it completely to point to God - not to anything incredible that she might have done, but all the incredible things that God has done through her. Claire has previously called Sister Mercedes her 'hero of the faith', and I'd never really understood having a 'hero of the faith', but now I so do. I endeavour to follow her example - her humility, her obedience, her pure faith in God - she is a beautiful, strong daughter of the King. And after all this, she made it about me. She told me how she was sad to see me go and told me not to forget them. I told her I was going to stay in contact, I was going to write to find out how she is and how the children are - and she was overjoyed! And I said, 'no I won't forget. I'll be praying, and I'm going to go back and tell everyone about you and I'm going to raise some money to help...' And she interrupted me; 'the most important thing is that you pray. Pray for us. And remember us.' Such beautiful, wonderful faith. --------------- [1] Photo credit for the sunset: Tim Hendy. = Está bien Recordarse de Cosas que Sabemos I just had my first lecture of the year; on Paul! I'm doing a module on 'The Letters of Paul', and as it was the first lecture, it was more of an introduction to what makes Paul interesting (and difficult!) to study and his main ideas, etc. Anyway, the lecturer said something really interesting. Dr. Simon Gathercole is lecturing for this module and he is GREAT - his speaks clearly and like he genuinely enjoys his subject and he's very talented in the world of New Testament studies! I even wrote about him in my personal statement when I applied; well... I thought I'd better find someone who's work interested me at the university I was applying to! ;-) But because we're going to be studying Paul as a theologian - looking predominantly at his ideas and his additions to the intellectual history of Christianity, Dr. Gathercole wanted to highlight to us that there is a danger in that you can start to think of Paul just as a head - just a brain; just thinking. But he’s not. He’s a man with passions and he was a Christian. A lot of the time, we treat ideas as if they come from a vacuum and aren't the product of people with passions, but that makes no sense, because we know they are. And he pointed out that Paul was both an itinerant missionary (going from place to place, preaching the Good News) and a missionary pastor, remaining in one place for a number of years and leading the Church to grow there. His life was characterised by movement and settlement, movement and settlement, etc. The point being, Paul didn't sit in a state of prayer, solely seeking after knowledge of God all the time. Paul actually DID thing. He went out into the world and told people about Jesus, told people of God's glorious grace, and showed them God's love for ALL people. And something I only really realised that I had realised today, when I was responding to an email regarding my recent mission trip, was that going away to the DR and spending time with Christians who have given up so much to follow God and love the people he has called them to love, reminded me that if you truly love God, you simply CAN'T do nothing when you see someone in need. Doing Theology at Cambridge is great; I'm learning so much and delving further into the Bible, God, Christianity and so on, more than I ever thought I would! But occasionally, you get hooked into academic ideas and the importance of what you think on certain technicalities of Christianity - for example. My trip brought me back into the real world! Christianity isn't a set of ideas, it's a life lived in love; God's love for us and God's love for other people. I cannot love God and not love other people. I remembered something I have known all along but had been pushed out of the forefront of my mind; that to love God is more than just what you think and the theology in your head - it means actually, truly, holistically, genuinely and sacrificially loving people as well. And you can't do this if you know there is a need but refuse to do anything to help. |
Like the Facebook page to keep up-to-date with blog posts!
AuthorI'm a recent Cambridge Theology graduate now studying for a Masters in Biblical Studies and blogging about all sorts of things! I'm interested in faith, Church, theology, social action, the great outdoors and being creative, and all of those things - along with many more - come through in my posts!
Categories
All
Archives
April 2020
|