Bob Warwicker's blog

This from Sunday’s lectionary…

Luke 12:49-56
12:49 “I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! 12:50 I have a baptism with which to be baptised, and what stress I am under until it is completed! 12:51 Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! 12:52 From now on five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three; 12:53 they will be divided: father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.” 12:54 He also said to the crowds, “When you see a cloud rising in the west, you immediately say, ‘It is going to rain’; and so it happens. 12:55 And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, ‘There will be scorching heat’; and it happens. 12:56 You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?

“How I wish it were already kindled”. I used to be OK with seeing Jesus’ promise to bring a sword as a prediction rather than a manifesto. But here he seems actively to be wanting change, division, a sorting out. He must have got so impatient with complacency, hypocrisy, the forgetting of God’s way of living for the community as the powers that be managed to keep the religious observances going under Roman occupation. These tendencies have troubled the people of God for millennia. We too need to hear what Jesus says, hard though it is.

Janet and I are now at home, and trying to adjust to the new normality after life on the road.

Prayer…
God, stir us up and sort us out, we pray.
Help us to see the signs of the times.
Help us to recognise your will and your work
in our generation,
and to be part of it.

We are having a stopover near Doune on the way home.

Not looking forward to all those unopened letters, all the house organising etc.. Also will need to learn to be part of a new community. That will be good though.

Also there is this in the front garden of the place we are staying. What’s this all about then?…

God give us grace to know you
as we travel, in place or in mind, 
or between communities. 

Well, Janet’s done it! She arrived at John o’Groats at about midday today: it’s been a long, hard, wonderful journey. So we had an ice cream, and later, this…

Meanwhile, I found this in a neglected corner of a coach park. This memorial is on the base of the old John o’Groats signpost, now ignored. It hurts to see it like this. The dangers of the road, and people’s tragedies are part of the lejog story and the stories of their loved ones.

We thank you God 
for journeys safely completed, 
and for all that is still incomplete,
and the hopes and fears
that live in every situation.
We know also
of failure and tragedy, 
and ask for your love
and the solidarity of Christ. 

After walking a long long road, Janet is now just a midge’s proboscis away from the end. It’s a bit surreal because we’re actually staying at John o’Groats tonight, although Janet has another hour and a half to walk. Anyway, it’s very nice here, and we can see the ferry come and go. The only problem is that the internet is a bit tenuous.

The humid air of the last forever has now gone and it’s chilly outside.

Janet is getting nearer the end now. The weather has improved, and it isn’t too far to John o’Groats now.

Meanwhile, this place doesn’t seem to have got the benefits of tourism yet…

Almost all of Janet’s remaining miles are on back roads away from the North Coast 500.

The Premier league has started again, this time without being lit up by the efforts of Huddersfield Town. The weather too seems to be saying that summer is on the way out.

This walk has been fantastic, although some aspects have been difficult. But what will it be like when it comes to an end? Who knows?

A hard day for The Walker. We got an early start, to try and beat the rain which was due to start at lunchtime. But instead we got different rain. Not proper rain, falling from high up in the clouds, but drizzle falling from the low onshore clouds. It didn’t even show on the radar. But with the rising wind, it was a horrible, horizontal, soaking rain. In combination with an exposed and surprisingly fast back road, it was very unpleasant.

But with a lot of stops and starts, Janet made it to the east side of Thurso, now only 20 miles from Monday’s endpoint.

Also I’m beginning to recognise features from 16 years ago, like walls in the Caithness style….

Here is Janet walking through the mist and drizzle…

The north coast 500 is a motor tourist route around the top of Scotland. It’s the new big thing around here. It must have brought a degree of economic regeneration. But I don’t know what to think about it. It’s not popular with everyone living here. Some resent the disruption, all the new traffic squeezed into roads that weren’t designed for it, the people who drive too slow and the people who drive too fast. The top road was moderately busy today with a number of tourists. And the back road that Janet used later seemed to have some very fast traffic and heavy lorries displaced from the top road.

We too are tourists, albeit slow ones.

We passed this river swollen by earlier rain…

… Today Janet walked extra miles, so as to have some in hand when more bad weather comes in a day or two. In this way, we hope she can still get to John o’Groats by the deadline on Monday.

The weather has caused power cuts and phone problems in this area, and shut down several railways in the Highlands. It was good to hear that the people of Whaley Bridge have gone home, though.

How can we thank you, Creator,
for the weather, 
when it can be so uncomfortable, 
so dangerous? 
But is part of the whole system
that sustains life. 
Give us the love
to care for our planet. 

What to do with unwanted stuff, eh?

This has been an issue for a long time. This burnt mound is where people put their old cooking stones hundreds, thousands of years ago.

The problem is more pressing now, though.

God help us deal with our rubbish
in a good way, 
in a way that helps future generations
to enjoy the world you made.

Apologies for the outage (if anyone noticed) . This was caused by me not paying, which in turn was caused by Microsoft putting my renewal reminder emails in the ‘clutter’ folder.

So check your clutter and junk folders from time to time, folks!