" . . . But having a day off isn't one of them." Talk about a two-edged sword!
Today was a day off, but the am bit was taken up with funeral related stuff: Squaring away the arrangements and burning CDs, doing a bit of post-production on the service recordings, writing eulogies and orders of service. There were the conversations with the funeral directors and family members and loads of stuff like that. Only seven more funerals to Christmas - been a quiet years with sixty-two done by the end of the year if no more come in.
Had some great visits yesterday and today was all about making sense of the information gathered and doing a bit of digging to discover more about the family and the deceased in particular.
The afternoon was taken up, mostly, with sorting out stuff for the church kitchen and editing some audio for the service on Sunday as I'm going to be elsewhere for the second week on the trot. Not a very welcome thing that, people want to have their minister on deck and when I'm away too much they feel a bit - wotsit!
Music practice went well and after that there was a director's meeting for the academy, which was also a blast. There's nothing better than a good accountant, makes the money stuff accessible and a joy.
Spent time with one of the church members - that's two of them who I've had an engagement with this week in a special way. It's good to talk with them and even better to talk to God about them afterwards. The intercessory thing is so blessed important and such a joy. Had an urge to pray for someone this week and then they turn up and make me think there must be something in the so many coincidences that frequent my life.
Need to get more time away to read the world and listen to the Lord - I love being in places and situations where time becomes elastic (sorry Catriona) and the traffic outside the church door becomes silent. Thinking and praying for the Taizé Communion this Sunday evening - to be in a sacred space and to feel the hair rise on the back of one's neck and sense the move of God; to pray and have the assurance that the need, unspoken though it might be, is dealt with.
And the issue of spiritual warfare came up again - in the old days we thought nothing of getting stuck in and the training (and experience) in working on the odd side of life - naming, binding, casting out and the like - it was what we did. Now I hear people saying we need the 'experts'! We are the experts, for if a non-believer can shut the door on the other side, how much more can we who are filled with the power and light of God's Holy Spirit do the stuff? He that is in us is greater than he that is in the world and so we triumph over them by the power of the cross making a public spectacle of them.
There are never two days alike in this life, we step out in faith and we seek to hear the Lord as we plant each step. How very blessed I am to be me. May my encounters today (it's after 01:00) be ordained by you and may I have ears that hear your voice and lips that work a little less!!
Build your kingdom Lord - use me to be a part of it - make me a peacemaker and help me to always give an answer for the hope that I have in Jesus, the Christ. Never let me lose sight of the fact that it is 'primus inter pares' (first among equals) and to never count anyone lesser that I count myself to be.
Thank you for dying for me and making me whole - Hallelujah!
3 comments:
Great to read and reflect upon your words. Might come back with a more susbstantive reflection but have loads to do today, so will be in between busyness.
Conception of ahe BVM first on menu here.
Have a good and blessed day :-)
I wonder about spiritual warfare sometime. I know that I have times when I feel empty and hollow - where I don't feel the wholeness that having the Holy Spirit as a palpable sensation with me, in prayer and reflective practice. I have even had several episodes of what I might describe as the 'Dark Night of the Soul', where I have felt lost or abandoned.
I pray through it, but wonder why it happens? It it something that I am doing wrong? Is it my lack of attention? or is it some sort of distraction activity by the old enemy, the Devil, I'm not sure why we use synonyms to describe evil - it is the devil who is the source of evil - and we can be complicit in spreading it.
Is spiritual warfare, his plan, not God's, or is the emptiness and darkness that we sometimes feel, a test of our strength of character and perseverance in faith?
And what can we do to help those, who seem to live in a sort of purgatory of spiritual warfare, day in, day out. How do we reach them, when they feel hopelessly overwhelmed by it all. Listening and being available is good, but we can't be there for them 24/7, although I suspect that might want that sort of help.
What do we do for those who reject the helping hand - just turn our back or get the hump? I do hope not.
Answers on a post card to ......
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