Hardship has a spiritual component. Insert prayer.

We all know that in this life, shit happens. Its unavoidable and we don't know what lies beyond the horizon. Question is, will it rock our faith in God or are we prepared?

The South Coast. Image: Julian Carter

In the book of John, chapter 18, Jesus is arrested and sent for interrogation to the Jewish high priest. Thus begins the pointy end of his ministry. Knowing this was coming (verse 4), what did Jesus do? He prayed. John records a prayer Jesus prayed for himself, his followers at the time and everyone who would believe in him in the future. For our unity, that we would be aligned with him in God.

The book of Luke records Jesus pouring out his stress to God (chapter 22, verse 44) in the place where he often went to pray, a mountain of olives. He asks that God might prevent him from having to go through torture on a cross and banishment from his beloved Father - into Hell itself. But Jesus finishes the prayer asking what God wants him to do and reasserting that he will go along with whatever God decides (v. 42b).

Jesus' disciples were exhausted from grief (v. 45) - who wouldn't be if their mentor and whom they believed to be God said he was leaving them (v. 20) and that they would even desert him (John ch. 16 v. 32)? But this trial, this hard time, was going ahead and the disciples needed to prepare for it. How? "Get up and pray so that you will not fall into temptation" (Luke 22:16). But it was too late because as Jesus was still speaking an armed crowd moved in to take Jesus.

During the hours that followed Jesus stuck to his purpose with strength and poise. His disciples scattered and one denied knowing him (see John 18 or Luke 22). They buckled, not having drawn from the wellspring of enabling that is in God.

I wonder what I would have done. Even if I'd prayed in that olive grove, would my heart and head have been able to stay open to God's empowering? We are encouraged by the teacher Paul in letters he wrote to the early church to pray continuously (1 Thessalonians 5:17), on all occasions (Ephesians 6:18), so that we might stay alert. Its not talking about some kind of anxious plea, waiting in hyper-vigilant fear for the next knock. The prayer Paul exhorts us to involves cultivating an attitude of cheerful gratitude throughout our lives (1Thessalonians 5:16-18). And also to feel strong and be strong because we are aligning ourselves with our maker and applying what he offers us: truth, righteousness, peace, faith and salvation (1 Thessalonians 5).

Sometimes we just have to face hardship; this is the world we live in. Sometimes God spares us from it and sometimes he allows us to go through it. I still don't know why God has allowed me to experience infertility but do I want to waste my life distracted and exhausted by grief? I know God loves me and he blesses me in countless ways, just not this one. So my prayer isn't always about what I want. It is a lot of the time, and that's OK too, but I also pray that my thoughts, desires and actions will be aligned with what God wants for me. That he will enable me to not only not buckle but to be alert to him, his blessings and what he wants me to do. And when I'm feeling confident, that I'll still draw from the well of his enabling because it brings me closer to God in relationship with him and that is so much sweeter than the satisfaction of being able to say I did it on my own.

A letter to my God.

Dear Jesus, 

Thank you that you are near, always accessible. Thank you for the life coach that is you speaking in Scripture and the Holy Spirit living in me.

Help me to pray continuously as is practicable. I can get stuck in my discouragement at life's misadventures and forget the resources I have to draw on. Please remind me that this is not my life but yours to live through me. Let people "see" you in the way I live this life you have given me.

Help me to stay cheerful, trusting, hopeful and strong. Cultivate this habit of prayer in me and thank you for your example of standing firm amidst the storm.

With love and gratitude,

Sally 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Silence of New Year's Day

Julian enjoying a fierce Spanish coffee.

What a sleepy morning! Julian has just got up from the lounge to put on a pot of coffee and I'm drifting off again at my desk.

Everyone be silent! God is present and is moving amongst us. (Zechariah 2:13, paraphrased)

What an apt verse for New Year's Day. The streets are quiet, the neighbours are quiet and crowds have dispersed. Of course many are quiet because if they made much noise the hangover headache would get worse. And people are sleepy from staying up late. But whatevs it takes to be still. Because in being still we can more easily contemplate God.

And God is certainly moving amongst us, the people whom he chose to come into being, whom he formed in his own likeness and breathed life into. And for those of us who choose it, God is closer than our own skin.

So settle back on the couch and before you pick up your book or close your heavy eyes, pause for just a moment to say hello to the God in the room.

Topsy Turvy World

The joyous, riotous overflow of splashing water. L by French artist Henri Guérin. R by Indian artisan Raju & myself.

Secularists* don't own society. They just think they do and are being bossy about it. Christians don't own society either, much as some wished they did; nor do people of any religion. We all live in the Kingdom of God, who owns us. So don't be intimidated by those who shout too loudly (whether religious or secular). But listen to your soul's cry for satiation.

Look well at my handpicked servant;
    I love him so much, take such delight in him.
I’ve placed my Spirit on him;
    he’ll decree justice to the nations.
But he won’t yell, won’t raise his voice;
    there’ll be no commotion in the streets.
He won’t walk over anyone’s feelings,
    won’t push you into a corner.
Before you know it, his justice will triumph;
    the mere sound of his name will signal hope, even
    among far-off unbelievers.

(God the Father speaking of Jesus; originally spoken through Isaiah the prophet. Matthew 12:15-21 The Message)

“Everyone who drinks this water will get thirsty again. 14 But no one who drinks the water I give will ever be thirsty again. The water I give is like a flowing fountain that gives eternal life."

(Jesus speaking to a woman at a well. John 4:13-14 CEV)

* Referring to non-religious people. Used in a general sense and doesn't refer to the specific adherence to state an church separation.

wisdom of the leaves

On a windy cold morning as I returned from the bakery, ready for a day of  creative industry, I spied a fascinating composition of shapes that was once a a single leaf, attached to the twisted rope of its stem. And then further down the road lay a delicate piece of skeletal lace.

Refuse, lying spent in the gutter, strewn desolately across the footpath. But the aesthetic spirits of these fragile leaves had not departed and they spoke to me. It compelled me to honour them as objets d'art in a mobile. And the exquisite vulnerability of their form told proverbs about how to see. 

“ 

Contemplate beauty in all people and you will see their inherent value.

Listen carefully; beauty whispers from desolation.

Function can be reinvented; there is no uselessness.

Value and respect the resources you expend.

Resist the tyranny of desiring what is new.

Reaching for the shiny and refined does not stretch one’s imaginative muscle. 

       

All beauty enriches; finding it in unlikely places grows contentment.

When you next step out into a bleak wintery day consider the beauty of the leaves underfoot and the wisdom they impart. Winter affords us this luxury.