by James Webb
Here’s a quote that I came across last year, and I’ve really appreciated it. It’s from a guy called Andy Peck.
“As my old pastor used to say, it’s not how often we go through the Bible that counts, but whether the Bible goes through us.”
Although I don’t make New Year’s resolutions, it’s turned out that I have started 2020 with a few new disciplines. I thought I’d tell you about one of them.
We’re about halfway through Lent – the length of time where we prepare for the good news that Jesus would not stay dead.
I think I like the idea of Lent more than I like Lent itself. Don’t get me wrong, I think Lent is a good thing – a timely and excellent reminder – and I’m sure that many people benefit from it’s place in the calendar. However, because things like reflection, discipline and ritual all have an important home in my spirituality, I don’t think that they’re tools that should just be dragged out of storage for a forty-day chunk of the year. I try to make them a regular habit and so that aspect of Lent seems – dare I say it – a tad redundant to me.
Furthermore, Easter is not a time where things slow down and opportunities for reflection increase – quite the opposite. I imagine many of you face the same situation. For me, Easter sees an increase in workload regarding children, family, school and church. Making time for solitude and space for reflection feels like even more of a luxury at this time of year, so I’m grateful that it’s already a part of my life. Instead my greatest need during the March/April madness is to make sure that I’m constantly inviting God into the middle of whatever smoke and thunder makes up my life each day.
Although it’s important and totally right to celebrate Easter each year, I know that I need Jesus and his resurrection every day of my life. I suppose that my hope is that I carry the attitudes of Lent with me 365 days a year, instead of for just forty.
I have an overactive imagination. Sometimes it’s good, sometimes it isn’t. It’s helpful for my writing, for one thing, but on the other hand, it’s very easy for me to miss what God is doing right in front of my face because I’ve drifted off into one daydream or another. Read more
I’m not an adventurous person, but the twists and turns of my life suggest that, for me at least, God implements such things as ‘compulsory adventures’. The problem is that being between adventures leaves me tormented by restlessness. I’m not exaggerating for effect (who me?). ‘Tormented’ is a carefully chosen word. I suspect this is a condition I’ll have to deal with for the rest of my days. It’s difficult. Read more
The title of this post is a line that I’ve had floating around in my head for a couple of weeks. It feels like it wants to be the punchline to a poem, but that sounds like too much hard work at the moment. Read more
Imagine that you own a plot of land. You want to plant something in it, but it’s not in great condition. There are weeds that need to be removed and rocks that need to be cleared. It’s a big plot of land, so it’s a big job.
The good news is that there’s no immediate rush – you’ve got time. Even if you only move one rock or dig up one weed a day then you’ll manage it. It might take a while, but you’ll get there. On the other hand, it is a big job. It’s a bit overwhelming. You can’t help but wonder if it’s worth it.
A friend of my wife once told her about her grandmother’s attitude towards housework – “Little and often.”
Good advice for housework, and equally sound when it comes to developing your spiritual life. Little and often is far better than allowing yourself to become paralysed by the size of the task ahead. It takes time and work to nurture the garden of your soul into fertile soil, but not as much time and work as you might think.
Move a rock here, dig up a weed there. A few verses here, a minute of silent reflection there. The only way that you won’t clear that land is if you do nothing.
