Neil's 7th Blog entry: Journey April 27th 2020
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Blog 7: Journey
The thing about being on a journey is that you never stay in the same place. That is the point of it: movement towards something. When travelleing, I always enjoy the journey as much as the destination. We often like to think of the Christian life as a journey. But that means that we are a people in motion. Never growing stale in one place, we relentlessly move on as the Spirit guides us. Or not. This is as true for us in our individual spiritual lives as it is faith communities.
I think it is fair to say that the past weeks have been quite a journey for us all on every front. Forced into social isolation, the pace of our lives has slowed from what often felt like frenetic race turned into something more like a gentle walk in the park. Perhaps one benefit of this has been for us all to stop and observe life in a different way. Each day has had its lessons and learnings for us as we found new ways to cope with social distancing and still run our lives. In our churches we have been determined to find ways to continue being a people together and there have been many different experiments along the way. I have been very impressed by the daring spirit of those who have taken the plunge into learning how to use new technology to reach out, to communicate and to bring God’s people together. Others have re-shaped the traditional pastoral conversation around social distancing guidelines. Some things work, some things do not work. Sometimes there are stumbles along the way. There are moments when that technology seems fiendishly complicated to use. But being willing to try, to fail and to carry on is taking us all on a great learning curve and we will not be the same after this time ends and a new time begins. We do it all because we love these churches of ours and the communities of faith that gather in them. We love them because they have been there for the long journey of our lives. We want them to continue to be there for us in the future.
Seeking, hearing, finding the direction of God in this journey is, I think, the essence of our spiritual discipline in this time. It surely has brought us all to our knees in prayer more than once. But that is the best place we can possibly be. Bringing ourselves and the people we love, and the communities of faith we cherish to God in prayer is one of the most important things we can do. Because it is God who can lead us through this time and beyond this time if we are willing to be on the journey with God. And we know we serve a loving God who cares deeply. I am encouraged by the words of Psalm 37 which says:
23When your steps are guided by the Lord and you delight in his way, 24Though you stumble, you shall not fall headlong, for the Lord holds you fast by the hand.
That is the most important truth we can all hold onto in uncertain times. So even if the pace of life is a little slower right now, all the better it is for us to press into God who will ever lead. What an opportunity this is for us to honestly assess where we are on the journey, and where God is taking us. One thing is certain, going back isn’t an option.
