Since I came back from Holy Island I’ve been based at home and enjoying finding God’s sabbatical pace here with Tara and Jethro. Lots of what I have done have been the normal things of life that I don’t get to do when I’m busy with Circuit life; things like taking Jethro to his swimming lesson, going to the library, tidying the garage, doing the garden.
Alongside these things we have done two things that have spoken to me of God.
1 Yesterday we had a Sunday together as a family. We worshipped at Hillsong Newcastle, a Church our friends Phil and Susan are part of with their children. After Church we went to Pizza Hut, it was great to not be pressured by visits to do and an evening service to be back for.
The service at Hilsong was good but a very different worship experience and Jethro’s face told us it was very loud! I shared in ‘kids church’ with Jethro where we learnt about the Holy Spirit and had lots of fun … and rice cakes.
Whilst the service was very different to what I am use to, one of the things that really came across was a real authenticity in the worship that was being offered to God (through those who were leading) and a strong invitation to participate in that. It was said from the front that what was offered was to point to God and not to point to the Church or those on the stage, the service showed this in its actions as well as its words. This authentic offering to God was a reminder of the image of the cross on St Cuthbert’s Island last week, that in all I do I should look upwards to God. I have no doubt that if the worship in all Churches was as authentic as Hillsong we wouldn’t have so many Churches that feel half empty … or more.
2 Today, Jethro and I went on an adventure! We went to Allen Banks and Starward Gorge for a walk, scoot and picnic. It was great fun, Jethro really enjoyed being outside, finding dens, having a picnic on the beach and been shown a dead mole the mole catcher had caught! As we were walking I tried consciously to look for God, where was God on our adventure, what did God have to say to me?
The walk at Allen Banks takes you along the riverside in a wood, the path has ups and downs and the river turns and twists. As we were walking along I was struck by the beauty of God’s creation that surrounded us but I was particularly struck by the fact that God’s creation isn’t still, the wind blew the leaves on the trees, the water flowed in the river, the clouds moved in the sky. It was a place of peace, a place of stillness but it wasn’t still in the sense that nothing was happening.
As we walked I also kept getting these two lines from the song opposite in my head:
Through the sun, through the rain
You never change
These lines reminded me of the presence of God in all things, the God who as the writer to the Hebrews puts it is:
the same yesterday, today and forever.
Hebrews 13:8
When the sun is bright, when the sky is blue
I will praise you, no matter what.
When it’s all alright, I will praise You
When life seems to go like I want it to
Things are as I’d hoped, I will praise You
Through the sun, through the rain
You never change
You are so worthy
I’ll lift Your name
And no matter what I’m going through
I will praise You
When it’s raining hard, when it’s all gone wrong
I’ll still sing this song, I will praise You
When I’ve been promised things that aren’t happening
And I’m still waiting, I will praise You
I will, I will, I will praise You
I will, I will, I will praise You
Jodie Frye.
Through these reflections I was felt profoundly moved that the God who is the same yesterday, today and forever is a God who is on the move, whose Spirit stirs us just like the river, the clouds and the trees. Sometimes that action is fast like the river was flowing today, sometimes that action is gentle like a breeze, sometimes that action is without a noise like the clouds. But God is a God of activity, a God of movement, a God who is at work in the world bringing his Kingdom in amongst us.
I think we sometimes think that if something is the same it never changes, but today I realised afresh that the very nature of God is to be on the move; as the Spirit was in creation, as God was when he parted the Red Sea, as Jesus was when he stepped out of heaven into the world, as the Spirit was when it came in power on the Church in Acts 2. For God not to change is for God to be on the move, to keep revealing God’s love to us, to keep shaping us, speaking to us, inviting us to join in with what God is doing. If God stopped been on the move, God would stop being the same yesterday, today and forever – it would be like the river stopping flowing.
As I walk with God on this sabbatical I am reminded from today’s adventure that I’m not walking with a God who is asking me to sit down in a chair and not move for three months, but a God who is inviting me to look to God and to move with God in lots of different ways; retreat, silence, activity, fun, reading, play, sleep! Finding God’s pace is not about stopping but about watching for where God is moving and how God is moving.
My book count is now up to three and I’ve really enjoyed these three books that I’ve read so far:
