Skip to main content

I will rejoice in the Lord


It's a beautiful day. Blue skies. No wind. Slight bite of winter still in the air. It is a day when it is easy to praise God as you go for a morning walk in the park. It even makes a journey to work a little less depressing. 

But it brought to mind a passage in Eugene Peterson's "The Contemplative Pastor." (Yes, I'm back there again.) It is probably my least favourite part of the book, where he does a miniature hagiography of Annie Dillard, the American author who has written much on the spirituality revealed in nature and the problem of pain. 
But in this section Peterson, drawing on Dillard's writings, says:
'It is child's play to "appreciate nature" when the sun is shining and the birds are singing. Something far more strenuous is involved when we face and deal with the cruelty and terror that creation also deals out in spades.'
Previously he makes reference to the 10% of living creatures that are parasites, which Dillard calls "the devil's tithe"... As someone who studied animal behaviour as an undergraduate, parasites, like the loa loa worm pictured above (hope that didn't put too many people off reading the post), were always biologically fascinating, but theologically challenging... 
And although the sun is shining in the sky today I know that there are those who feel that it has been blotted out forever, because of a devastating diagnosis, or a death... or simply because of that peculiar imbalance in brain chemicals that conjures up my old friend depression.

So that sent my mind running off to good old Habakkuk and his unproductive vineyard, and I wrote this short piece off the back off it:

Though the sun in the sky does not cut through the deep darkness of depression and the TV news is filled with war, disaster, immorality and economic despair, though a wet summer has resulted in rising prices and food shortages and there is uncertainty about what is in the food we are eating, though there are empty seats around the family dinner table and there is no hope of staving off the tumour eating me alive, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Saviour. I WILL rejoice in the Lord.I WILL...O God be my Saviour,
Help me be joyful in you.


Selah
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Woman of no Distinction

Don't often post other people's stuff here... But I found this so powerful that I thought I should. It's a performance poem based on John 4: 4-30, and I have attached the original YouTube video below. A word for women, and men, everywhere... "to be known is to be loved, and to be loved is to be known." I am a woman of no distinction of little importance. I am a women of no reputation save that which is bad. You whisper as I pass by and cast judgmental glances, Though you don’t really take the time to look at me, Or even get to know me. For to be known is to be loved, And to be loved is to be known. Otherwise what’s the point in doing either one of them in the first place? I WANT TO BE KNOWN. I want someone to look at my face And not just see two eyes, a nose, a mouth and two ears; But to see all that I am, and could be all my hopes, loves and fears. But that’s too much to hope for, to wish for, or pray for So I don’t, not anymore. Now I keep to myself And by that
2 comments
Read more

Psalm for Harvest Sunday

A short responsive psalm for us as a call to worship on Harvest Thanksgiving Sunday, and given that it was pouring with rain as I headed into church this morning the first line is an important remembrance that the rain we moan about is an important component of the fruitfulness of the land we live in: You tend the land and water it And the earth produces its abundance. You crown each year with your bounty, and our storehouses overflow with your goodness. The mountain meadows are covered with flocks and the valleys are filled with corn; Your people celebrate your boundless grace They shout for joy and sing. from Psalm 65
3 comments
Read more

Anointed

There has been a lot of chatter on social media among some of my colleagues and others about the liturgical and socio-political niceties of Saturday's coronation and attendant festivities, especially the shielding of the anointing with the pictured spoon - the oldest and perhaps strangest of the coronation artefacts. Personally I thought that was at least an improvement on the cloth of gold canopy used in the previous coronation, but (pointless) debates are raging as to whether this is an ancient practice or was simply introduced in the previous service to shield the Queen from the TV cameras, not for purposes of sacredness, but understandable coyness, if she actually had to bare her breast bone in puritan 1950s Britain. But as any church leader knows, anything performed twice in a church becomes a tradition. All this goes to show that I did actually watch it, while doing other things - the whole shooting match from the pre-service concert with yer wumman in that lemon-
2 comments
Read more