Kneel in Nature

A year ago, amidst huge excitement and slight terror, Sam and I made a giant leap onto the property ladder, purchasing our own little patch of planet Earth. Needless to say, a rather large proportion of this patch is made up of our small, though perfectly formed little two-bed terraced house… but at the back of the property, hemmed in from the outside world is our very own little outdoor space. A (not so quiet) sanctuary inwhich we can potter around as we please: exploring, creating and watching with fascination as every day miracles happen before our very eyes.

 

I should say from the offset, I have never been a gardening sort. I yawned loudly whenever Monty Don’s face appeared on the TV and watched aghast as Charlie Dimmock squatted over a flowerbed, wrist deep in mucky soil – leaf-strewn hair blowing haphazardly around her face. Despite my parents' best intentions, I simply couldn’t get excited by the prospect of spending my spare time on my knees, pulling up what I believed to be weeds from perfectly manicured flower beds… the identification process for this job was undoubtedly dodgy and I no doubt pulled up many a geranium during these ‘Gardening Sunday’ afternoons.

 

However, with the purchase of our brand spanking new property, we automatically became the owners of a garden which was solely our responsibility… Help! Being a great believer in the helpfulness of books in all situations, I immediately bought a manual to help with this conundrum, identifying ‘Gardening Basics for Dummies’ as a pretty good place to begin. An expensive visit to the garden centre, lengthy conversations with some gardening connoisseurs and a few productive weekends later and we are the proud owners of what certainly looks to be a budding little garden. We have thus far stuck with plants that profess to be ‘hardy’ – an important quality to have in order to survive  in these conditions(!), but so far, amazingly, we have managed to keep things alive.  More than that, I have been surprised by my own interest and awareness of the changes happening from week to week and season to season. As small, somewhat pathetic little seedlings are planted and, with some nurturing and encouragement, grow into strong and beautiful plants, I am struck by the miracle of Nature. 

 

At this time of year particularly, as humanity continues to trudge through the working weeks – eyes fixed on the summer holiday that awaits us just around the corner – Nature is coming alive. Spring is well and truly springing up all around us as trees are resurrected with their green, fresh leaves and birds are nesting, creating the next generation of little feathered beings. Even now, with the patio doors flung open, I am greeted with the beautiful sound of birdsong and rustling leaves, as white fluffy clouds pass peacefully over our heads. God reveals Himself in the beauty of nature each and every day. Do you take the time to notice? 

Do you find yourself getting wrapped up in the cares of the World? Do you get stressed and anxious at the prospect of another week, filled with more busyness? I humbly suggest one thing… Take yourself into the great outdoors. Take a walk, or you might even just want to lie on the grass in your garden or in a field somewhere. Forget yourself for one moment. Leave your phone and laptop behind. Be still and listen carefully to the miracle of life and nature all around you. The God that created the world and everything inside it, from the smallest ant to the towering mountain is the God who created you. He has you in the palm of His hand and He knows you. Hear it and know it. This God wants a relationship with you. 

Whether you know Him or not, I encourage you to dedicate your week to this God. Trust me, He’ll keep it safe.

The Thin Place

‘Heaven and Earth are only three feet apart, but in the thin places that distance is even smaller’
                                                                                                                    (Celtic saying)

"The Thin Place" in this quote is referring to places and moments in time whenthe distance between Heaven and Earth is smaller. Where the veil separating Heaven and Earth is lifted and one is able to catch a glimpse of the glory of God. It’s a glimpse that takes your breath away, it overwhelms and yet sustains your very soul.

Where are your thin places? Have you found them yet?

I don’t know about you, but I find it all too easy to focus my attention solely on the negative elements of our World. My eyes and ears are filled every day by atrocities happening all over planet Earth. Humanity destroying itself through war and hatred. Men and women destroying our planet and its creatures because of greed and selfishness. Natural disasters killing people in their thousands, leaving broken homes and lost family members. Illness and disease taking more and more victims every day, causing pain and anguish to the people it affects.

These events are heart breaking and I cannot understand why they happen. I try to convert my heart-rendered questions into prayers for those affected. To cry out to God for peace and restoration to the nations and families that need Him so much. I encourage you to do the same. In times like this, the distance between Heaven and Earth can seem huge. When parts of humanity walk in the valleys of darkness, the situation can feel suffocating and hopeless. 

The Bible promises that there will come a time when our world is restored and all suffering will come to an end (Isaiah 65:17). But what about now? How do we cope when people around us are suffering such sadness?

I encourage you to actively search for the thin places in our world and in our lives. The places and moments where God's love and light shine through brightly.  Why? Because it’s in our experience of the thin places that we snatch a glimpse of God and His deepest desires for us. Our eyes are opened to the glory of God around us... We see the good people who far outweigh the bad; the beauty that far outweighs the ugliness; the light which conquers the darkness. There will come a time when our world is restored and all suffering comes to an end. In the meantime, I implore you to search for the thin places on Earth right now:

The stunning view over green countryside that takes your breath away.

Sharing precious time and laughter with close friends.

The birth of a most longed-for baby.

The love shared between two people, grown stronger over decades.

A sunset at the end of a long day.

                                                                                                   

When you seek God, you will find Him. 

The thin places are all around us... Are you prepared to search for them?

Easter

With a toasted hot cross bun and a steaming cup of tea at my fingertips, I have a chance to think ahead to the next few days. As significant and important as this time of year is to me and many others, I recognise that, for some, it passes without real acknowledgement. Apart from providing a legitimate reason to eat chocolate without feeling guilty, an extra day off work and perhaps the chance to become reacquainted with a few far flung relatives, Easter is regarded by many as being unimportant. In fact, even more than that, it seems to have been branded by our society as the understated, boring and somewhat introverted relation to Christmas. 

Despite this secular attitude to the season, I feel very differently about Easter; along with millions of Christians around the world. For me, it sums up the awesome, indescribable and breath-taking love of a Heavenly Father God for his children. It’s a love that is not remotely selective or prejudiced, but extended to every single person on planet Earth. It builds up in times of discouragement; carries in times of despair; gives hope to the hopeless; strength to the weak and peace to the troubled. By sending His Son to die on a cross, God bridges the gap between Himself and humanity. Our sins are made clean through the sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross and a relationship with our Creator is made possible. In my opinion, there is nothing understated, boring or introverted about that! 

It is impossible to describe God’s limitless love for every one of us. It surpasses understanding that the same God that flung stars into space and shaped the Earth in the palm of His hands, chose me and formed me and, because of this, loves me with an everlasting love. And yet the Bible tells me so:

“For I am certain that nothing can separate us from his love: neither death nor life, neither angels nor other heavenly rulers or powers, neither the present nor the future, neither the world above nor the world below—there is nothing in all creation that will ever be able to separate us from the love of God which is ours through Christ Jesus our Lord.”
(Romans 8:37-39)

I don’t know what you think about Easter - whether you think about it at all in fact. However, I really hope that this blog has helped you to understand what I think about it. I believe the message of Easter is good news… the best! I want to share it because I truly believe you should know how much you are loved.And so, this Easter, I pray that you may ‘have the power to understand, as all God's people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep His love is’ (Ephesians 3:18). 

Time

‘Time is what we want most, but what we use worst’ (William Penn)

Time. It’s something we all have in equal share. Every one of us begins each day with 24 hours before the next and yet, how is it that some people seem to achieve so much more in this time frame? I doubt very much that I am the only person who views time as being elusive; an intangible enemy which moves life along far too quickly, leaving you to reminisce on the original plan for a day or week with a heavy sigh, knowing full well that the reality never quite matched up. 

I am a great list-maker and regularly make to-do  lists as long as my arm, objectives to achieve in a given time-frame. Inevitably it is rare that all of these targets are achieved. This then, of course, leaves me with the feeling of guilt that in some way I haven’t achieved the productivity I expected of myself. Productivity… It’s an interesting word isn’t it? The OED definition for this word varies from ‘generating’, ‘creating’ or ‘bringing about’. It denotes activity and busyness: fruitfulness in your endeavours.

Mere hours after I broke up from school for the Easter holidays on Friday, I had drafted a ‘productive’ to-do list for myself. A strict brief involving mundane tasks from washing to ironing to hoovering to gardening as if I wouldn’t be making the most of my time off unless I used it ‘productively’ in this way. In 21^st Century Western culture, we seem to require productivity in order to deem ourselves and our lives useful or meaningful. For many, a productive day at work is the amount of money that is generated or the number of meetings attended. In my case, it would be the depth of learning that took place in my classroom in a given day; the progression of children in my class; the amount of marking or planning that I managed to cram in to the day.

On reflection, I wonder what Jesus’s concept of a ‘productive’ use of time might be. As a man on planet Earth, He had the same amount of time in each day as we do and yet his emphasis was never on what he managed to achieve in a monetary, personal or professional level. His productivity was always outward looking, centred around other people. He viewed the short space of time he was given on Earth as being for service towards others. How many times did he give up his time for others? Stop on his journeys to help the needy and the lost? To heal the blind or diseased? He was never too ‘busy’ to help people and yet how many times have you failed to help someone out because of the busyness of your own agenda? 

All too often, we use the sheer amount we attempt to pack into our own lives as an excuse not to help or listen to others. We consider our own busyness to be of paramount importance because we measure the meaning of our own lives on this type of productivity. 

Take Jesus as the example of productivity that you aspire to model; not the 21^st Century Westernised version. When you open your eyes to the potential of a day in terms of your influence on others’ lives rather than your own, your life will become so much richer and impactful. 

We all begin each and every day with the same amount of time, how will you use yours?