Problems!
Thanks to Heulwen for these photos.
This past weekend seems to have brought with it, a fair few problems, personal and otherwise to many people. It is almost as we relax with a weekend full of things to do and follow and we feel a bit more comfortable with ourselves, that it hits us there and then! It comes like a bolt out of the blue and somehow shocks and shakes us.
The old saying "a problem shared is a problem halved," holds a lot of truth for so many of us, yet in these days of Covid-19, somehow we can't share in the same old, comfortable way and we thus feel more distant. What confusion there was from the P.M in his Sunday broadcast to the nation. What confusion! What ripples of uncertainty even though many listened carefully at the time. What mixed messages! However, by sharing concerns people were able to show their confusion and concern and indeed with further briefing some of the issues, are sort of resolved.
It is the same with the church. We think all is going smoothly and a problem crops up and shakes our complacency. We can not see a clear way ahead, but as we share things and talk, we can see where we should go and how.
However this should not be doom and gloom. In fact the opposite! We are members of the Church, the body of Christ. We are united by love, linked to each other, not only by faith but by mutual trust and accessibility.We can share things with one another, but more than that our God hears and shares our worries and concerns. We can lay our issues with God and be strengthened by His love reaching out to us. Prayer is so powerful whether it is in formal prayers or in our private ones or indeed the "O God help me," prayer of the desperate.
So today let us ground everything we do and say in prayer, seeking to open ourselves to God and to our neighbours too. Let us make extra time to draw alongside God in prayer and know for ourselves His peace, His love and his protection in times that might concern us.
Molly who "disappeared" from the blog on Sunday, only to reappear now! I am grateful for Di's sending Molly for us on our virtual holiday.
I thought you would all enjoy this item from Becky, the family lockdown boogie from N.Z.