BeachcomberFX

Category: 2024

  • Re-arrange

    Re-arrange

    Hi folks, I hope you are ok and that you are having a good weekend! This week’s blog is written by Sue and it introduces us to our new theme… We are putting a call out to you to write us a blog. We are looking for people to write a blog based around either a short story, a song, a movie, piece of art, something in nature… that you love or that means something to you. In the blog you could reflect on some of what you love/like about it… think about some of the challenges that you find within it, ponder on how it makes you feel, what inspires you about it. You could talk about some of the themes that it generates for you. Don’t worry about the questions as we will put those together based on what you write. If you have a particular question you want to ask then let us know.
    If you are interested in taking part could you let Sue know and we will give you a date.
     
    Now over to Sue for her blog and we will be meeting at the Enigma Tap  in North Shields at 7.30
    Biffy Clyro has a very special place in my relationship with my husband Peter.
    We both liked the song Mirror of Horrors before meeting each other. Biffy was the first gig we went to together and it was while watching Biffy on tv at one of the summer music festivals Peter proposed.
    It was the album Ellipsis when I heard the song Re-arrange so while Biffy was touring when we went to see them at Newcastle Arena.
    So why this particular song Re-arrange?
    When I first met Peter, I was up front and honest about my mental health regarding depression and anxiety. In fact I cried on our first date telling him and the fact that due to having PCOS I may never be able to have children.
    Heavy for the first date! I know! It was not something I had planned to do but there was a connection that was safe and I felt could be honest, no plastic smiles and masks that would later fall off and be a surprise.
    After being 45mins late for our date! Thank you, public transport! We had a nice meal on the quay and then went for a walk. We had our first kiss and then sat near the river. And there it just came tumbling out of my mouth, along with the tears. The tears came from my eyes not my mouth ha ha. When I finished I said to Peter “ I totally understand if you want to leave now”. What happened next I did not expect. Peter sat closer to me and said “End of an old chapter, Beginning of a new one”.
    And we have been together ever since. In fact it will be 11 years this year.
    The song Re-arrange not only reminds me of our first date but over the years we have helped each other rearrange a lot of things in so many different ways. For me a lot of my rearranging has been to do with my mental health and being diagnosed with PTSD. Along the way Peter has been so encouraging, very patient and loving to help with my healing.
    It is the chorus that really speaks to me. It’s never been about breaking each other’s hearts but it has been about rearranging parts to work better.
    This led me creating the art shown at the beginning of this blog for Peter’s valentine’s gift in 2017.
    Over the years I have listened to this song many times and the chorus has been a reflection of how I see God working in my heart. He’s not been breaking it but rearranging it to work better. Healing so that I am not numb to emotions but slowly healing to allow me to feel emotions again. Addiction has kept me numb to emotions, it has been my coping strategy, but now I am learning to feel emotions again, to not run from the negative emotions and to not hide from the positive ones. I am learning to have my heart rearranged to enable me to allow my heart to be open again and not closed.
     
    Questions:
    1 What was the first gig you went to and\or the first gig you and your partner went to?
    2 . Are there any lines from the song re-arrange that speak to you? What is it and why?
    3. What do you think the song is talking about for you?
    4 What are the differences between breaking something and rearranging something? And what might the similarities be?
    5 When in your journey of faith, has something needed to be broken and something has needed to be rearranged?
    Peace Sue.
     
    Photos by Sue.
  • Embracing Disorder and Uncertainty.

    Embracing Disorder and Uncertainty.

    This week (because I promised to do a blog and have been really busy) I’m going to share with you one of the first blogs we’re going to do for Northern Shore – A sister community in Northumberland. Catching the zeitgeist, you could say this is a BFX x NSFX collab. Anyway, we will be meeting at the Tavern and Galley at 7:30pm – on with the blog.

    This is looking at our first value – Embracing disorder and uncertainty.

    I often walk into someone’s house that is a little messy and disordered and think, this is great. I remember walking into a friend’s house and there being piles of pages ripped from magazines. Obviously it was things that they liked or wanted to keep, and had piled up ready to read them. Or homes where there are loads of books, or plants, pictures etc. I admire disorder. However, I crave order. This is something I have reflected on a lot.

    We’re probably all aware of the London Underground map – it’s a design classic. It was design by Harry Beck in 1931 to simplify the ever increasing complexity of the underground system. But it bears little resemblance to the topography of London. Claire always says that she prefers to walk when we go to London because you get a better sense of the city. The map may allow us to navigate the underground railway and its stations. To easily find out how to get from one station to another and work out the zones for fares. But it’s rubbish for understanding the actual geography of London.

    We humans love to simplify things; it’s one of our traits. From art, to architecture, to rules, to social structures. From personality, to relationships, to life – you will find us simplifying to help us to make sense of it all. And that is not a bad thing, as long as we understand that is what we’re doing. We simplify to cope, and to manage all the input we get from life; but that doesn’t mean life or our place in it actually gets less complex.

    So we decided that embracing life’s disorder and uncertainty was a good thing – it’s the reality of our existence. 

    In Matthew 11 there is this famous passage:

    28-30 “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” The Message

    Jesus’ message could be read to mean that everythings going to be easy and straightforward – but that’s not how I read this. He says he’s addressing those who are worn out and heavy-burdened. This isn’t a call to simplistic belief that everything is going to be sunny. Instead, it’s a promise NOT to add to the burden. Life is hard enough, complex enough, troublesome enough without more weight, or without unrealistic simplistic promises. Our faith should make sense of our human experience in all its messiness; not pretend life isn’t like that. And that’s why we have chosen to say that we embrace disorder. 

    Life is messy, together we embrace what it means to be human, and walk through it together.

    Questions

    1. Where is the most disordered place in your house?
    2. Thinking back to the first section, do you admire disorder or crave order?
    3. Is simple: ordered or disordered; does it free us from complexity or allow complexity to happen; is it freedom or control?
    4. Does faith incline towards simplicity or complexity? How does this affect how you live your life?
    5. Where do you crave more order?
    6. Where could you grow disorder?
    7. Take some time this week to look at forms found in nature (trees, clouds, beaches, etc) and consider where there is simplicity and complexity.
  • Taking a breather…

    Taking a breather…

    Hi folks, how you doing? We are taking a break this bank holiday weekend, so we will be back as normal next Sunday night. We hope to see some of you there.
    Peace, Rob
  • Elections and all that…

    Elections and all that…

    Hello people. Hope you are well and enjoying the sunshine. This week we will be meeting at The Quarry pub at 7.30pm. This week the blog has been written by Sue.

    Last week we had our local elections and I was asked to write about it for this week’s blog. So thinking about this I wondered what to write should it be statistics and a breakdown of the results or some kind of other fact based research. All great and all very important but what I then thought is where is our voices in all this. I love P!nk and she is not shy in sharing her experiences and opinions, fighting for all, not just the individual. Two of her songs speak to me of  politics: ‘Dear Mr President’ and ‘What about Us?’ (links below to listen).

    These songs make me think ‘well what about us? What are our individual stories of local and national elections? What are our stories of politics? So here are a few stories I have of my own involvement and experiences of elections and politics.

    During my life I have lived under the government of 10 Prime Ministers;  32 years and 45 days (thanks Liz Truss for the 45 days) under a Conservative government and 14 years under a Labour government.

    As a child of the 80’s I watched the TV with miner strikes, remembering clearly the violence between strikers and the police. Watching my own dad come in from work, and head back out to union meetings to protect jobs. I am thankful to my dad for teaching me about politics and government. Hearing him still say ‘if you can’t give 15 mins to go vote, you’ve no right to complain’.

    At university I had to stop talking about politics with a friend because in their opinion Margaret Thatcher was the best thing since sliced bread. We had to agree that our friendship was more important than politics.

    As a community and youth worker over the past 29 years I have seen the decline in funding resources from central government to local councils which result in community centres and youth projects being closed down. And then when young people start getting into trouble and anti-social behaviour the blame is laid at their feet. THEY ARE KIDS! The adults that are meant to be looking after them are struggling working every hour they have, having to use food banks, and make the choice of whether to eat or use electric/gas to heat the house up. Those of us who are trying to help through volunteering and professional work have our hands tied because the government thinks that once the statistics show an improvement to the issues they pull the funding to ensure that work cannot continue and back on the roundabout we all go!

    The consequence of our National government reducing funding to local councils means that the services and projects the local councils use to support are now applying for funding that other voluntary projects would apply for making the ‘competition for funding’ harder.

    And if you ask my husband, the national elections have put me in hospital once. A combination of David Cameron being elected, me staying up to see the results, a very strong coffee and an early morning resulted in the worst migraine I have ever experienced, including throwing up during work, I ended up being taken to hospital. So thankful to our NHS for being there and whatever it was they gave me allowed me to sleep and was then able to go home.

    So to the present day, I feel that over the past few years I have been reliving my childhood but as an adult, watching NHS staff, teachers and other working professions strike under a conservative government.

    In the weeks leading up to last week’s election we only had a flyer from the Labour party about their candidates, no other information was posted or so I thought. On voting day I went to open what I thought was my polling card to find that it was a brochure of the candidates standing for the North East Mayor. Why had it not been opened, because it came in the same white envelope as the polling cards. Yet on closer inspection in the bottom right hand corner it says enclosed brochure for voting.

    When I was talking to a friend who is part of a political party, they talked about how not all candidates who were standing for this role could be included in the brochure. ‘Oh? Was there too many and not enough room in the pages?’  I asked. No each individual/party had to pay £3000 to be included. Not all parties that stand for election have these types of finances. So, again our election processes come down to who can afford what, the haves and the have nots. In my opinion a theme that seems to resonate with a conservative government, or maybe I’m just biased.

    Now I do not hide the fact that I do not agree with the Conservative party but at this time I also see no good alternative to them. The Labour leader is already talking about a ten year plan to turn things around, which is also based on the hope they will be voted in again to complete this plan. Ten years! I’ll be 56! And whoever gets in other than the Conservative will inherit a lot of chaos to sort out, just as the conservatives keep saying they have done from Labour.

    Maybe it’s time to hear the stories and the generational impacts those decisions have had for the individual whose lives are affected by the decisions that are made in London and local councils.

    Questions:

    1. Did your school have house teams? If so, what team were you in? And what was the colour?
    2. What was it like the first time you were old enough to vote?
    3. What has been your experience of politics and elections?
    4. What would you say are the good things about our political and electoral systems and what are the bad things?
    5. What does the Bible say about governments?

    This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA

     

    Peace Sue

  • The cosmic hum

    The cosmic hum

    Hi folks, I hope you are doing ok? This week we are meeting at the Quarry Pub on the Broadway, I hope you can join us, meeting from 7.30.

    As I write this I am coming off the back three amazing gigs, with another to look forward to tonight, I read a blog recently by Maria Popova, and it captivated my thoughts, the line that struck me was this… she says:

    “I remember wondering as I sang whether music is something we make or something we are made of”.

    This is also what Pythagoras wondered when he discovered the mathematics of harmony. He called it ‘Music of the sphere’ – it was this idea that every celestial body produces in its movement a unique hum determined by its orbit.

    It was Kelper two millennia later that dived back into Pythagoras’ work as he wrote ‘The Harmony of the World’. Kelper believed this ‘celestial music’ was not just a metaphor, not just symbolic for the cosmic order — he believed in it literally, believed that the universe is singing, reverberating with music inaudible to human ears but as real as gravity. He died ridiculed for this belief.

    Unbeknown to him, half a millennium later our radio telescopes detected a low frequency hum that pervaded the universe! It has something to do with black holes colliding in the early universe, as they merge they send out a low note. and so they create this low hum… We have heard the universe sing!

    This is what is wondrous about music, it moves through the air and reaches our ears, and it makes us feel and experience something other. We of course have the ability to make sound, to sing, one of the joys I have spoken about before is my love of the community singing group i’m part of, Mariners and Marras, not just because i’m meeting new people but i’m expressing myself through singing. For me it is worship, the very act of opening up one’s vocal cords does something to me… and needless to say to others! Alongside love, music may be our best way of saying “yes” to life, and to our life together.

    The latin root for the word person…… is…. ‘to sound through’! How magic is that… through that we realise that that is about relationship, it indicates a listener. We sound through to something other than ourselves. When we speak, when we sing, when we channel this sound wave of the soul, we reach beyond the self and partake of the great harmonic of belonging.

    And then I came across this poem by Marie Howe, read the words below , and watch the video , it’s beautiful… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4fPqNcovJw&t=123s

    HYMN
    by Marie Howe

    It began as an almost inaudible hum,
    low and long for the solar winds
    and far dim galaxies,

    a hymn growing louder, for the moon and the sun,
    a song without words for the snow falling,
    for snow conceiving snow

    conceiving rain, the rivers rushing without shame,
    the hum turning again higher — into a riff of ridges
    peaks hard as consonants,

    summits and praise for the rocky faults and crust and crevices
    then down down to the roots and rocks and burrows
    the lakes’ skittery surfaces, wells, oceans, breaking

    waves, the salt-deep: the warm bodies moving within it:
    the cold deep: the deep underneath gleaming: some of us rising
    as the planet turned into dawn, some lying down

    as it turned into dark; as each of us rested — another woke, standing
    among the cast-off cartons and automobiles;
    we left the factories and stood in the parking lots,

    left the subways and stood on sidewalks, in the bright offices,
    in the cluttered yards, in the farmed fields,
    in the mud of the shanty towns, breaking into

    harmonies we’d not known possible. finding the chords as we
    found our true place singing in a million
    million keys the human hymn of praise for every

    something else there is and ever was and will be:
    the song growing louder and rising.
    (Listen, I too believed it was a dream.)

    So some questions:

    • What are you listening to at the moment?
    • What was the last piece of music that stopped you in your tacks?
    • “I remember wondering as I sang whether music is something we make or something we are made of”. Thoughts?
    • How does the bible talk about music/sound?
    • What does singing mean/do to/for you?
    • How does ‘to sound through’ relate to people’s relationship to God?

    Peace, Rob

    Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay

  • Amen!

    Amen!

    We are at the Galley and Tavern this Sunday from 7:30pm. See you then lovely people.

    A few years ago a sermon I preached as part of a series on prayer ended up being the most controversial thing I’d ever done. Its subject was the word “Amen”. So, I thought, let’s give it another try 🙂.

    So let me start with a question: When you say “Amen” what do you mean? Take a few minutes to have a thing and, if possible, jot down a few thoughts.

    The root of the word Amen is Aman.

    And it means:

    To be firm, to endure, to be faithful, to stand fast, to trust, to believe. 

    Aman, means to prop up or support.

    It is soaked in the language we use of God: Faithful, permanence, Assurance, Sure, established, trust, verified (truthful), steadfast, Father, nurse, mother. It means something which will last and endure.

    One of its other meanings, around truth, is a place where we can drive a tent peg. Think about a desert culture. Knowing where to drive the peg is essential.

    When we say Amen, we call on these foundations to be present in the situation we are praying about. Or in the One in whom these qualities are found.

    It speaks of faithful people who fulfil their obligations. So when we say Aman – it means we will follow through with what we’ve agreed.

    It’s also used to describe God’s covenant-keeping – what He has done -faithfulness-and what He will do-trustworthiness; also in covenant: because of “the faithful God who has kept His covenant and faithfulness, those who love him keep it too”.

    So when we Aman we highlight God’s faithful trustworthiness, and commit to the same!

    A key passage for Aman is Genesis 15:4-6.

    There is an interplay between God’s promise and Abram’s belief in God.

    So Aman allows us to see that our Amen is possibly a bigger wider assent than just I agree. It sums up who God is, our belief in Him, and our agreement to bring things about. 

    In 2 Corinthians 1: 12-24 Paul explains that Jesus is the ultimate expression of God’s yes and our Amen. This statement is in the middle of a passage where Paul is talking about his actions and integrity, not just about faith. It’s about Paul living out the gospel, not just knowing it.

    Therefore, Amen is an incarnate word where our belief and knowledge loop with our action and integrity. There is not a divide between our knowledge and action – excarnate; instead, we are incarnate. Bodies indwelt with God’s spirit and doing his work.

    In Amen we call upon God’s nature, our belief, our faith and our commitment to bring that into reality. Our commitment is practical and active, we commit to standing shoulder-to-shoulder with those we pray for.

    When we look at Paul’s description of Jesus the Christ: We believe He did it; not just say he’d do it! So when we say Amen – we should be acknowledging who God is by nature – faithful, true, resolute…We are acknowledging our faith and belief in this and driving our peg into the surety of that truth and his covenant to be with us through Jesus…and committing to work to help bring that into reality, really into reality –  here!

    Prayers are manifestos of the kingdom where we reflect on who God is, who we are in God, who God is in situations, and then be in situations as God-followers.

    We will face situations where the problem is too big for us, there is too much for us to handle – Prayer brings us into the covenant relationship with God incarnate – God with us. Standing shoulder to shoulder may not mean that we solve the problem, but step into it alongside people. We may face persecution, pain, and hardship. We may sit and listen, cry, comfort and cry out to God from depths of despair.

    We may well step into and live in a faith gap where the only thing we can do is drive a tent peg into the place we know is sure and tie down our tent flaps for the storm.

    Amen is all of this – We commit to God, our place in Him, and our role in bringing His kingdom here.

    So Amen changes from “ I agree” to “Where do I sign up”, “Count me in regardless of the cost”, “I am with you”, and “Here I am LORD, use me”.

    Amen?

    Questions:

    What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever heard anyone pray for?

    Has anyone been an answer to prayer for you?

    Have you ever found it difficult to say “Amen” to something? Why?

    If Amen/ Aman is to drive a tent peg into deeper truths and characteristics, what are those truths for you?

    Do you agree with my assertion that Amen should be more than “I Agree”?

    What challenges do we face as a community if we accept that Amen means we should step into situations rather than just posting our prayers off to God.

    Photo by Jordan Allen Walters on Unsplash

  • Get out of your comfort zone

    Get out of your comfort zone

    Welcome back everyone! Hope you have enjoyed the long weekend last week. We are meeting this week (7th April) at the Enigma Tap at 7:30pm. Everyone is welcome. This weeks blog is from Naomi.

    So, I’m sitting here on a Monday morning writing this, when normally I would be enjoying a lie-in on my day off. The reason being? Well, yesterday we had a BFX leadership meeting and as usual, the discussion about needing people to write blogs arose. I normally avoid volunteering as it is something that is out of my comfort zone – I don’t feel confident to express my thoughts accurately in written words and I worry too much about what other people will think. Anyway, here I am, and I thought, why not do a blog on the very thing that is challenging me in this moment?!

    We all love to be comfortable. It is our default setting as humans I think. If you ask most people how much money they would like to earn, the answer is usually “enough to be comfortable”. No-one admits to wanting to live a lavish life-style, but most people do want to have enough to feel secure, well-fed, well-dressed and a bit extra for treats etc. During lockdown we all realised that we could live in physical comfort all the time by trading our work trousers and shirts for hoodies and joggers! Comfort is nice. It is safe. It is where we feel good… but is it where we grow?

    I think most of us would look back at challenging times in our lives and see that although it’s tough going through it, usually there is some kind of positive outcome or growth that has taken place because of that experience. As well as the need for safety and security in humans, there is also a need for progress – which can only come about if we are willing to sometimes risk a step outside of our comfort zones. 

    So, what are our comfort zones? I’ve had a think and come up with a few ideas below but I’m sure there are more:

    1. Friendships and socialising – Who we do revert to spending time with? Who would we avoid socialising with because they’re not “our” kind of people. Do we avoid socialising completely because it’s just easier to avoid people all together! (This was a big one for me following lockdown – I got very used to just existing in our little family bubble.)
    2. Finances and material possessions – How should we use the money we earn? Should it all be used for our own comfort? Should we live on the minimal amount possible and give the rest away? 
    3. Community – Thinking about the communities we are part of: work, family, interest groups, church, BFX… what is our role in the group? Are we consumers, content to just attend, or should we find ways to contribute and serve others? 
    4. Faith – Where do we feel confident to live out our faith and where is it more challenging? In a pub? In a church building? In our work place? How do we feel about sharing our beliefs with others? Are there any beliefs we hold that are comfort zones for us that might need to be challenged?

    In the Bible, we see many people being challenged to get out of their comfort zones. God asked Moses, a man who had to flee the country because he’d killed an Egyptian foreman (Exodus 2:12) and who was known to have difficulty speaking (Exodus 4:10) to return to Egypt to ask Pharoah to let the Israelites go to worship God in the desert. God asked Jonah to go to Nineveh, a city known for its wickedness, to go and preach repentance (Jonah 1:2). Jesus told the disciples to go and preach the gospel by essentially relying upon the kindness of strangers, not taking any of their own material possessions with them (Matthew 10: 9-10). All of these situations required people to get out of their comfort zones, their places of safety and security, and undertake tasks which will have made them feel awkward, exposed, fearful, and both physically and socially uncomfortable, but which were part of God’s plan to bring blessing and healing to those in need. 

    Questions:

    1. What is your favourite comfort food?
    2. How do you feel about getting out of your comfort zone? Is it something you intentionally do or try to avoid at all costs?!
    3. Can you think of any other examples of people in the Bible stepping outside their comfort zones? And what was the result?
    4. Which of the 4 areas mentioned above is the area you find easiest to step outside your comfort zone, and which is the most challenging?
    5. Can you think of any other areas in your life where you might have comfort zones?
    6. Does BFX have a comfort zone? What might stepping outside of it look like?

    Photo by Spencer Gurley Films: https://www.pexels.com/photo/man-with-blue-and-maroon-camping-bag-1448055/

  • Hopelessness…

    Hopelessness…

    Hi folks, I hope you are doing? This week we are meeting in the Quarry pub on the Broadway, it would be lovely to see you if you are able.
    This next week, I have another birthday… Ugh! It’s in that spirit that I offer the following pondering.
    It seems to me that we are often faced with a sense of helplessness, we look at the state of the world and we are bemused by what we see, we can’t seem to grasp why people do what they do, we may look at family and friends and wonder why on earth did they do that… and then we look at ourselves… and well, yes, we certainly feel helpless at our lack of ability to make the right decisions.
    We are about to embark into the Christian festival of Holy Week, and again we see this sense of helplessness, we read the stories and time and time again we see humanities failure.
    The human spirit tries to counter some of this by using various coping mechanisms, prayer, violence, routine – and still we are powerless to keep the accidents from happening, life is still complicated, the earth continues to be in despair at our utter helplessness.
    We are haunted by the consequences of our choices. We so wish that we could have chosen more wisely and had more courage. We wish we had risked a bit more, we wish we had loved a little more deeply, or shown some kindness, we ponder on what it would have been like if we had chosen words more carefully. We have all had those thoughts that “I should’ve”, which leads us to a deep sense of self loathing, and poisons our souls that little bit more… and we wish that we could find ‘reconciliation between oneself and all one’s pain and error’ as James Baldwin suggests.
    We see all of this in the accounts of Holy Week as well as our day to day living. I suspect you are feeling totally flawed now!
    So what stops us from being better… or as George Saunders writes,
    “What is stopping me from stepping outside my habitual crap? My mind, my limited mind… The story of life is the story of the same basic mind readdressing the same problems in the same already discredited ways.”
    He also suggests that there is a possible route out of this mire… He says:
    ‘Don’t be afraid to be confused. Try to remain permanently confused. Anything is possible. Stay open, forever, so open it hurts, and then open up some more, until the day you die, world without end, amen’.
    As I get older, I think I have become more confused about most things in life, it’s not so black and white, and you know what… that’s ok… I am happily content at being confused!
    I also love this idea of ‘staying open’. And I realise that when I try to practice it, I don’t always get it right, but I think it is a very powerful process to try,  particularly in the times we are living in. Even as we journey again through the Holy Week narrative why not be open to new possibilities and understandings about the story.
    Some questions
    What movie comes to mind about a hopeless situation? What was the outcome?
     
    What has age done to change the way you view things?
     
    What parts of the Holy Week story do you find the most difficult?
     
    How do you feel about confusion?
     
    What stories of being open come to mind?
     
    How can being more open help us in our daily lives?
     
    What does being open mean for your spirituality?
     
    Peace Rob
     
    Image by LoganArt from Pixabay
  • Weeds and Roots

    Weeds and Roots

    Hi folks, hope you are doing ok! This week we are meeting at the Tavern and Galley, 71 The Links, Whitley Bay NE26 1UE. Meeting at 7.30 for those of you who are around. This week i’m thankful that John Cooper has provided this weeks blog for us. 

    Forgive me for a second allotment-based blog this week. I’m the type of person who tends to be thinking about what’s in front of me. And what’s in front of me, now, is weeds and roots. 

    Our original plan was to hire a rotavator and have-at-it to the roar of a petrol engine and possibly some not very H&S shenanigans. However, a neighbouring allotmenteer advise us not to do this as it’d just break up all the roots and make the matter worse. He predicted that it would be a spade-by-spade slow affair to “root out” every little (and in fact not so little roots) from the weeds. And so it’s been the painful task of digging one clump of earth and breaking it up with my hands to loosen the earth from the roots running throughout the ground. It’s a whole network of large and small tendrils.

    At Easter last year I stepped down as a church minister to start something new – a fresh expression called Northern Shore around walking, being in nature and art. We’d already talked to the BFX leaders who offered to help and as we thought about what we wanted it to look like we use phrases from nature. One was “work with the weeds”. Don’t try and plant, tend the plants that are already there. It’s a high-minded idealistic metaphor for a faith community; but a terrible one for producing some veg. And, as I found out, there was a lot of digging and ground clearing needed to be done in my own life.

    I gave myself two months to rest after leaving 35 years of deep involvement in traditional style of church, two months to untangle all I felt was right and wrong with it, the baggage of it all. None of this is to criticise that style of doing things. It obvious works for a lot of people, but for a long time I had begun to realise that it wasn’t working for me. 

    And so, over the last year I’ve had to engage in my own spiritual ground clearance. Some huge thorny brambles of issues got chopped down quickly and burned. Some of the old dead grass was easy to pull up or scythe. But closer to the ground, and under it, roots and fibres needed to be dealt with more carefully and slowly. 

    In the bible there’s a tradition of Sabbath and jubilee. Times when land is left to replenish, times when we rest, times when things are returned to what they should be. Rest – Restitution – Restored. Sometimes the pause between things allows us clear some of the things we need to so they don’t take root in the next thing. That’s what this year has been for me. In our frenetic world I wonder of many of us get the chance for a sabbatical as I have done. Maybe it’s more common in ministry; but we shouldn’t discredit its power in any walk of life. 

    I’ve also been reading some books on the Celtic pattern of the year. Between January and now is a dark time for reflection. Not bad, it’s about preparation waiting for the right time to sow, planning for the time just ahead when we can go into action. But for now, we wait, and we ponder; we dig and we pull up unwanted roots.

     

    Questions:

    What’s the most successful plant you’ve managed to grow?

     

    Do you have green fingers, or can you kill a houseplant just by looking at it?

     

    Have you ever had a time in life when you’ve been fallow (left to heal and feed and replenish), or sabbath, or sabbatical?

     

    Can you remember any times where you have had to slowly and carefully process and weed out deep things lingering under the soil of your life?

     

    How can you find a time each day, each week, each month, each year to have a period of intentional mental weeding?

     

    Peace, Rob

  • Cynicism

    Cynicism

    Here is this weeks blog! hope you enjoy it. We are meeting at the Enigma Tap on Sunday at 7:30pm see you all then.

    Claire and I have recently got an allotment. During half-term we started to clear it off and we had many of our neighbouring allotmenteers pop around to introduce themselves. All of them advised us to: “take our time…don’t rush things…divvent sicken yersens”. But, under their tentative welcomes and gruff advice I sensed a weary cynicism. They all told us the story of our plot, and it was a story of people who started, but didn’t finish. Full of good intention, but no sticking power; big ideas, but little tenacity. 

    As this was happening, we had just come back from our weekend away, and as part of our story telling sessions I was stuck by the fact that some people had joined after having some doubts about the group (in fact, some people still expressed doubts). IS this really the new thing we need, or should we invest in traditional church? Does what we do help to answer our questions or disrupt our answers. 

    Certainly, my own experience has seen many people respond to change and newness with the cry: I’ve seen it all before…new things come and go…we may as well just stay the same. And, to be honest as I get a bit old I can understand what they’re saying. 

    So, my question is: Is it healthy to hold some cynicism about change and new ventures?

    I want us think about 3 stories from Jesus’ life. Firstly, we have the old chestnuts Anna and Simeon (Luke 2). They’re waiting for the new thing to appear. They are hoping it’ll come during their lifetime, and when it does, they are open to seeing it and rejoicing in it.

    Secondly, Nicodemus in John 3. He goes in the night to see Jesus, which probably implies he’s a bit embarrassed to be going to check out what Jesus is about (and a not-so-subtle literary device for John to show light and dark). He’s open to what Jesus is saying while being sceptical at first. 

    Lastly, grumbling pharisees (Luke 5 & 15) just don’t like what Jesus is up to, all this eating and drinking with sinners is winding them up. So, they tend to be hanging around outsider or at the edge of the party muttering and grumbling.

    A bit on-the-nose I know but I think it’s safe to say  – “plus ça change”. Things have always been this way. Some people love change, and some people are cynical of it. But, again, is a little cynicism a good thing? Is it just being realistic? Or should we accept the rest of the quote “plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose” the more thing change, the more they stay the same.

    Questions:

    What’s your favourite downbeat character from literature or film i.e. Moaning Myrtle, Eeyore, or Marvin the paranoid android etc.?

    Who are the most cynical people in the Bible? What might this tell us about cynicism?

    What the biggest change you’ve seen in your lifetime?

    Are you: Pessimistic or Optimistic? Questioning or see how it goes? A change maker/ a change adopter/ a change cynic/ a change resistor? Glass half empty/ Glass half full/ Glass empty/ Glass broken on the floor/ or glass scourged by the fire of brutal reality and melded into an indistinguishable lump?

    Is cynicism healthy?

    Is there a spectrum of cynicism? Where would it start and end, and what points are along the way?

    Where does hope fit in?

    What can we do to make sure we have a good balance in our questioning of new things?