the adventures of retirement
O God, when walking with you
just seems a little bit, well … boring,
then open doors for us to see
glory, excitement,
the furnace of your love:
help us to see the story
that began before history,
goes way beyond our futures,
and includes us.
God of love, give healing,
for COVID hasn’t gone away.
All round the world, unprotected people
are getting sick and dying.
Not far away,
people are getting sick and dying.
God save us.
God restore in us
the desire to help and heal others.
Looking at the gospel reading out of tomorrow’s Lectionary, we see something of Jesus’ priorities according to Mark – children and people not generally regarded as the ‘greatest’. Earlier, he predicts the death of ‘the Son of Man’ – by which we understand ‘Jesus himself’. What the disciples understood by this at the time we do not know. Whatever they understood, they were unsettled by this talk of betrayal and death – as I continue to be unsettled by the violent times in which Jesus lived. He was able to be who he was even in such circumstances. We his followers are still often scared. May God give us courage.
I wonder if the seating arrangements in church influence our ways of thinking…
We praise you God,
for the beauty of the sky,
the glory of the air.
Give us grace to
look after what you have created.
This on a walk today, reminder that even old paths and boundaries change.
For a couple of weeks now, random leaves have been turning yellow or brown and falling off. Maybe this is normal.
From the Lectionary for Sunday… Isaiah 50:9a: “It is the Lord GOD who helps me; who will declare me guilty?” How can we be sure? How can be sure we haven’t got it wrong and are just following our own idea of what would like God to be? Of course there are tests – we compare what we stand on with what other believers stand on, especially those unlike us. We use the Bible (although that means different things to different people). We pray. We think. But somewhere at the back of all this, the uncertainty remains – am I really on God’s side? Or am I just believing what makes me comfortable?
PS I reckon that “Am I on God’s side?” is the same question as “Is God on my side?” – Not that God will stop loving us, come what may.