“Peace be with you.” John 20.19 I want to share with you my Pastors’ words today, because I thought they could do with sharing!
”One of my friends who is in lockdown lives in a flat. She is on her own. Even though she keeps contact with family and friends by phone, at times, the isolation is suffocating. ”She feels frightened, forgotten, frustrated, by this virus that has taken her captive. ”I wonder if a story in the life of Jesus can help us when we feel like that? ”After his resurrection, Jesus visited a group of people who were in a lockdown of their own making. They were not afraid of a virus, but they feared the loss of their lives because of their friendship with Jesus. ”But because Jesus understands the loneliness, fear, and thoughts that go round and round in our minds when we reside behind locked doors, he visited his friends, and said to them, “Peace be with you!” (John 20 v 19). Jesus also offered them reasons to trust in him. Instead of their hearts then being filled with loneliness, they overflowed with joy! ”If you are finding lockdown difficult today, then invite Jesus to visit you and experience that peace for yourself.” ~ ~~ words were written by Pastor Mary Barrett. I hope they help you to feel more peaceful, as they did for me. 😊 Stay safe, and take care!
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But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the LORD sees not as humans see: humans look on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.” 1 Samuel 16.7 I’ve seen a few posts recently being super angry at people for their “unnecessary” reasons for being outside... Everyone likes to be the righteous one. Well, it makes me realise how glad I am that God doesn’t view our actions the way we view the actions of others, based on our own disgruntled senses of and need for superiority.
Maybe that person in the park doesn’t have a garden like I do, and suffers from anxiety, calmed only by the wide open space that reminds her of God’s care of even the grass of the fields. Maybe that person buying house paint has worked with her hands all her life and is losing grasp of herself sitting doing nothing and so is doing up the house to feel useful and keep her mind and hands busy each day in lockdown. Maybe that neighbour standing a little too close as she talks to the family in the next garden down is so, so lonely, and doesn’t have the social connections I do in my household or via online communication. When God picked out a king, he sent he prophet Samuel to go and anoint him, and from how things looked, Samuel got the king wrong EVERY time. There is often another way to view things. I’m going to keep trying to look at people the way God does - valuing them for nothing they’ve done, but simply because they are precious. I fall short. Time and time again. Especially now. But I’ll keep trying. Stay safe, and take care! Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life." John 14.6a Maybe right now you're still coming to terms with how quickly our human-made systems are weakening and struggling. Health, education, economic systems; right now we see how fragile they really are, and how the sense of security they give us is not true.
I remember the first time I felt like I might not be able to handle this crisis. The a week before the lockdown, my house had been in quarantine anyway as I'd picked something up at the school I work in and was showing the covid-symptoms. So by week 2 of lockdown, we'd already had 2 weeks of total not leaving the house ever, and it was starting to look like that wasn't going to change any time soon. I missed people, and felt like a bird in a cage - all classic things lots of people are feeling right now. But I wasn't sad, just annoyed. Then I went to ASDA - we'd had our shopping brought to us before, because we weren't allowed out, so this was the first time I'd left the house, and there were signs up, sharing the measures they were putting in to try and help people get what they need. Certain hours on certain days for NHS staff, limits on how many of something someone could buy. They even had a similar announcement over the tannoy system. And I found I was nearly in tears at these things! It became real. I relied on these systems, and took them for granted that they were freedoms and abilities I'd always have! I didn't think I'd be in a position struggling to make a normal meal because I can't seem to get all the ingredients for anything!! Yet here I am. Here we are. I got over that falling-apart-ness, for the time-being anyway. I came to realise more and more that my life does not depend on those systems. They help my life, certainly they do. And I'm more grateful than ever for them. But I'm not dependent on them for my being, my identity, my capacity to go on. And neither are you. Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life." Follow that way. Seek that truth. Live that life. It is more fulfilling and dependable and purposeful and useful than anything else in all the world. Stay safe, and take care! I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world. John 16.33 (NIV) Stuff happens. Sometimes crazy stuff! But take heart - there's something better to focus on amidst anything. Someone who knows you. Who's got you. Who loves you. And who will never tire of being there when you need.
So peace! Where are you finding yours? Because even though we have reminders like this in the Bible that Jesus gives us peace, I think us humans are still pretty good at being anxious, busy, sometimes empty... Pretty good at being peace-less. But I find peace when I can move myself above all of that, and focus on something else. For me, that revolves around God and it revolves around creating - putting something back into the world, rather than just consuming all the time. Using time in a different way; when it doesn't matter when it will get done, just that eventually it will. For me, I've been finding peace in having pretty flowers on the window sill to remind me of seasons and that things stay underground sometimes and grow out at others. For me, peace is in the time I spend stirring, kneading, smelling, and waiting as I bake goodies to share. For me, it's in the brush strokes (real, and more recently digital too!) and water sprays and even in some cases the clacking of the keys on my keyboard as I create something new. For me, it's in the songs I sing and the words I read as I lift my eyes to remember my God. Why not take some time to find peace in this time of space? Do things differently - without an agenda or deadline. Of course, neither you nor I can make everything like that! There are still things we need to do by certain times, or in certain ways. But it's still important to actively try to do some things in ways that carry you into the stillness and peace that God designed us to need and destined to give us. Stay safe, and take care! Psalm 139.5 | אָח֣וֹר וָקֶ֣דֶם צַרְתָּ֑נִי וַתָּ֖שֶׁת עָלַ֣י כַּפֶּֽכָה׃
"Behind and in front, you've enclosed me, and put your hand upon me." We can do this. We're moving forwards and I'm not afraid. Sometimes I dig my heels in, but you move me onward anyway. You lead me - you're excited and you know the way through - there's so much you want to show me. You're who I see, and want to see, but sometimes I wish you'd just tell me where we're going too. You've got my back - you're sensible, responsible, secure - it's comforting. You hem me in, I can't escape; there is no escaping life, but at least I can live it with you. I know that whatever happens you're there and your palm on me tells me that you won't abandon me. I won't be alone. I won't be lost. Always seeking you and your presence. At least not lost forever. Behind and in front. You oscillate. I oscillate. |
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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!
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