Dear Friends
People sometimes wonder which is busier for ministers, Christmas or Easter? Both, of course, have lots of ‘extra’ services, and Advent and Lent groups and meetings in the build-up to the festival. Yet at Christmas it feels more straightforward because it’s all on one theme. Yes there is the waiting, and trying not to push ahead into Christmas too early, but it’s waiting for good news; and if school carol concerts etc come along fairly early in the process, we can cope quite easily with celebrating and then waiting again for that celebration in all its fulness.
During Lent and Easter, it’s very different. And during Holy Week there is quite a tension between walking the journey with Jesus and his disciples, and knowing what the end of the story is. We don’t want to rush the journey; we don’t want to be only half-present because we know that everything turns out all right in the end; we want to feel Jesus’ sorrow over Jerusalem; the disciples’ incomprehension; the unbearable distress in the Garden; the grief of having lost their Master and Friend. And yet, the fact is that we ministers need to plan ahead, to let churches have details of Easter Sunday services before we have completed Good Friday. We are forced to look ahead but keep what we have gleaned and prepared a secret until the right time – even from ourselves, as we come back into the events of Holy Week.
Mindfulness is about living in the present moment, realising that all we have is the ‘now’. When we slow down into the moment, we can become more aware of what is going on; what we can see, hear, feel. That slowing down calms us, as we realise we don’t have to cope with everything all at once, and that God is with us in that quiet space – as God is always with us, but sometimes we are too busy to notice. All other things can be put to one side as we sit, stand or walk in the presence of God. I find this centres me in the midst of a busy day.
When I am worried about ‘getting everything done’ and stressing myself with imagining that people might be cross if I don’t make the deadline, taking ten minutes of quiet helps put everything into perspective. In this moment God loves me, no-one is angry, there is time to do what is needed – because sometimes my brain works better after the break and sometimes I realise things don’t need doing anyway.
As we move into these last couple of weeks before Easter, then, let us walk more slowly, taking time to look around us on the journey and wonder what might God want to teach us on the way, both in the times of sorrow and in the time of Resurrection.
With love,
Christine
People sometimes wonder which is busier for ministers, Christmas or Easter? Both, of course, have lots of ‘extra’ services, and Advent and Lent groups and meetings in the build-up to the festival. Yet at Christmas it feels more straightforward because it’s all on one theme. Yes there is the waiting, and trying not to push ahead into Christmas too early, but it’s waiting for good news; and if school carol concerts etc come along fairly early in the process, we can cope quite easily with celebrating and then waiting again for that celebration in all its fulness.
During Lent and Easter, it’s very different. And during Holy Week there is quite a tension between walking the journey with Jesus and his disciples, and knowing what the end of the story is. We don’t want to rush the journey; we don’t want to be only half-present because we know that everything turns out all right in the end; we want to feel Jesus’ sorrow over Jerusalem; the disciples’ incomprehension; the unbearable distress in the Garden; the grief of having lost their Master and Friend. And yet, the fact is that we ministers need to plan ahead, to let churches have details of Easter Sunday services before we have completed Good Friday. We are forced to look ahead but keep what we have gleaned and prepared a secret until the right time – even from ourselves, as we come back into the events of Holy Week.
Mindfulness is about living in the present moment, realising that all we have is the ‘now’. When we slow down into the moment, we can become more aware of what is going on; what we can see, hear, feel. That slowing down calms us, as we realise we don’t have to cope with everything all at once, and that God is with us in that quiet space – as God is always with us, but sometimes we are too busy to notice. All other things can be put to one side as we sit, stand or walk in the presence of God. I find this centres me in the midst of a busy day.
When I am worried about ‘getting everything done’ and stressing myself with imagining that people might be cross if I don’t make the deadline, taking ten minutes of quiet helps put everything into perspective. In this moment God loves me, no-one is angry, there is time to do what is needed – because sometimes my brain works better after the break and sometimes I realise things don’t need doing anyway.
As we move into these last couple of weeks before Easter, then, let us walk more slowly, taking time to look around us on the journey and wonder what might God want to teach us on the way, both in the times of sorrow and in the time of Resurrection.
With love,
Christine
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