by James Webb
I’ve been reading a book called ‘Deeper Places: The Spirituality of the Psalms’ by Matthew Jacoby, and I was struck by something that I read today. He suggests that the most common experience conveyed by the Psalms is the experience of waiting for God to show up.
Crowded together on this train, heading to the city;
Only this is taking much longer than I had hoped.
Nobody seems to care about my needs;
Sitting there, with their loud conversations, loud music, loud chewing.
I can’t believe this is happening.
Do you hear him? He’s singing along to the music on his headphones!
Enjoy the music, go on! Don’t consider what I might want;
Really, all I want to do is read my book in peace.
Oh, now what’s this? Another stop at another station.
There’s a man getting on. I hope he doesn’t sit next to me;
He’s, shall we say, rather on the large side. I bet he smells too.
Everyone’s smiling, watching as he makes his way down the carriage;
Right and left, right and left, he looks for an empty seat, and stops next to me.
Sure, sit right down why don’t you? What else could go wrong?
Bad parents, messy eaters, I’ve got them all;
Everyone, it seems, is out to ruin my day.
This would be a really nice journey if it weren’t for them.
The headphone singer seems to be getting louder;
Even Gandhi would have punched this guy by now.
Relaxing, this ain’t!
This is the worst group of people I’ve ever had the misfortune to meet;
How did I end up in a carriage with them?
All we’ve got in common is our destination;
Now I’m expected to put up with all their nonsense?
You’ve got to be kidding me!
Our friend, Mr Fatty, has fallen asleep!
Unbelievable! His head’s on my shoulder! My shoulder!
Right away he starts to snore.
Somebody help me – I think he’s about to start drooling.
Every time I think I’m going to get some peace, someone like this comes along;
Let’s agree that, in future, I should only travel with a certain type of people;
Very nice, clean, good-looking, low maintenance people.
Everyone, in other words, who’s like me.
Stuck on this journey together, they could at least put my needs first.
(I had an idea, which became this little poem. If I was an illustrator of any talent I would probably turn it into a children’s picture book.)
The paving stone,
set hard and set proud,
said, “I can’t be moved
from my home in the ground.”
“Beneath me the earth,
I crush all the life,
no root can take hold
with no hope and no light.”
But a small, humble seed
a challenge did make:
“Heavy you may be,
but you’ve made a mistake.”
The stone laughed out loud
at the tiny thing’s cheek,
“You can’t lift me up!
You’re too small and too weak!”
“It may take some time,”
the seed did reply,
“but I’m not stuck here,
for my goal is the sky!”
The years went on by
while the seed sought a gap,
the stone did not know
of the tiny thing’s trap.
And go visit now,
this is what you will see,
a humbled, broke stone
that’s been split by a tree.
“It is the dreadful lie of our culture that you must take the great adventures while you are young. Maybe so in abseiling and Bungee Jumping; but it is not so in the truly dangerous business of the Kingdom.”
Peter Volkofsky
It’s definitely true that our culture lionises youth. Getting old is seen as a backwards step; a decline; a curse rather than a blessing. But if you’re bemoaning your lost youth then you’ve done nothing more than bought into another lie. There’s a Native American saying: “No wise person ever wanted to be younger”. The truth is that if you’re living well, then you’ll be growing in character and wisdom. If you’re giving your relationship with God the attention that it deserves then you are more like Christ today than you were this time last year. If this is the case, then you’re actually more useful to God now than you used to be, and you’ll become even more useful the older that you get. The Bible is full of elderly heroes; men and women who didn’t hit their stride until the years of experience had caught up with them, and the wisdom of suffering had tempered and focused their youthful energy. Jesus himself spent his youth preparing for the tasks of middle-age. Let me add this: if you aren’t nurturing your relationship with God then you’ve got bigger problems than aching muscles, saggy skin and unwanted hair.
Be encouraged. The world may tell you that your glory days are behind you; that your purpose now is to grow old quietly and aim for nothing more than to be a productive member of United Kingdom PLC, but I tell you that God has plans.
