Journal: Sitting in the sun

Today was different for me on a number of levels.

A first in the Crem'
A realisation in the study
Time spent in the sun
a church Council meeting that flew

The crematorium was a strange place today. Even though I had an early slot they were already running late and this situation was made worse by the fact that one of those present in the service taking place before me collapsed and had to be extracted; so suddenly we were fifteen minutes late.

Now that's nothing new, crises and overruns are the curse of the excellent staff at Sutton Crematorium, and they cope with it extremely well. But the new thing was for me to finish my part of the service at the halfway mark to permit the members of a fraternal society to say their goodbyes in ritual and song. We didn't claw back any of the overrun time (something I try to do if I can when there are timing issues) and in fact I think we added to the slippage if I'm being honest. But it was an  interesting experience regardless.

As a time Lord I know that time is something that can be stretched and manipulated to permit all manner of things to take place without the need to say 'No'. Today I realised that many times this ability to exploit time's malleability is called upon by people imposing their whatever's on me as they cherry pick and vacillate. But today another line has been drawn in the sand and time bending and creating spaces in the time space continuum will be reserved for the most critical situations. This is good news for the man in the remote island in the Pacific who wonders why days where he is are only eighteen hours longs I'm sure!!!

I had the opportunity to spend time with a colleague today, so I took it and we found ourselves sitting in the sun, something I need to be doing at the moment, and praying as God's creation and provision were poured out on us. There were pastoral and theological considerations to be discussed and a host of other stuff besides. And I'm going to be doing it again - the first time for something should often not be the last.

And the church council meeting - everything is stable and solid and pottering through at the moment. No new initiatives, no burning issues - we are in that phone war phase before the annual rounds of annual church meetings kick in - and to be done and dusted by nine o'clock was another first. But I think we need this sometimes to give us a chance instead to chat with each other as we wonder what to do with the time that was left before normal closing time.

The problem with life is that we tend to run along ruts and these ruts prevent us from deviating from what soon becomes the norm and makes life humdrum and stale. But the joy of the new creation that is today is that the day is there for us to rejoice and be glad in it - and although I was, I realise that I have made God's provision stale before the day was even begun.

Like manna, which sustained for the day and was gone at that day's close, being replaced by new stock the next day, the day we have - our daily bread and butter - is there to celebrate God's diversity and devotion to us. But we regularise and ritualistically constrain it to become us running on a treadmill rather than a walk in the sun.

"You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand."  (Ps 16)

This place of reflection is here for me to dialogue internally and gain insight and perspective. It first appeared in this current form for some of those looking at creating their own journal as part of the their journey to discerning vocation. The Morning prayer is there also for that same purpose: to create the discipline of prayer. 

The Vicar's a Time Lord! - A cautionary tale

A long time ago, when the world was young, there was a man who could control time.

When the situation was such that more time was needed to be available for him to get things done then he merely slowed time down such everything that needed to be accomplished was carried out in the same time slot that was ordinarily available to the mere mortals around him - except there was more of it for him!

Whilst the general populace thought that there was but one day left before an event, the time lord, thanks to his time-shifting abilities managed to make it such that he could get three days work in - and so all rejoiced as the event ran like clockwork (and on time too!) with no one any the wiser (although the people were amazed at the work rate of the man in question).

As the man's life progressed he came to faith and later became a Vicar, a role where the special skills and abilities he possessed really came to the fore. Fetes, services and festivals were always delivered without a hitch and without the slightest blip for, when anything that might have previously been a problem appeared on the horizon, the Vicar would merely bend time to make sure enough was available to make sure everything necessary was done to make whatever it was happen.

Our time lord Vicar  became aware of a strange phenomenon which at first he supposed was the result of all of his twisting and stretching of time. It was a most troubling and extremely bizarre phenomenon because it seemed that wherever he was time ran like clockwork and all the people worked normally. The weird bit was that the moment he left, so to (it seemed to him) did time itself! It's true, as soon as he was somewhere else, in the place he'd left, time stopped until he returned!

The moment he appeared things started getting done but as soon as he departed everything stopped again! Busy groups of people were, immediately he left, rendered still, silent and completely inactive and yet, should he walk back in to their presence, they start moving and acting as if they'd never stopped. Bizarrely, none of them seemed to have any realisation that they'd been in what seemed to be suspended animation the minute the Vicar had left!

'It must be a folding of the time-space continuum,' he thought to himself as he returned from his two-week's holiday to find nothing had been done while he was away and it seemed to him that everyone was exactly where he'd left them.

He repeated the exercise time and time again and yet, without fail, found that the same thing happened (or rather didn't) to the extent that he was ready to promote his empirical hypothesis, on the basis of his experiment and measured research,  to the state whereby it was to become known as 'Vicar's law'.

Now I'm sure that there are many out there who are totally aware that the time-space continuum had not been corrupted or distorted by the Vicar's stretching of time at all and this is the reason that 'Vicar's Law' never made it into print or onto the stages whereby accolades and plaudits were heaped upon him. No journals have ever carried the research because, as I'm sure you will already know is this:

What our hero had observed was no figment of his imagination but was a reality many Clergy live with!

For the reality is this:

Time really continued as normal when he was absent.

The terrible reality, which is just a little too terrible to contemplate, is this:

The people had been doing nothing for almost all of the time but he was just too busy (or perhaps too polite) to mention, or even notice!

It was only when he was absent that the fact that the others were doing nothing became obvious!

(glad that's not the case where I am)