Hi folks, I trust you are doing ok in the midst of these strange times. If you need someone to talk to and feel alone then please do get in contact with me, happy to chat!
This is the first blog I have written in a while as we have been meeting in other ways… but here we are again!
If you would like to be included in one of our socially distanced garden groups locally then please do let me know ASAP… We will be meeting at 7.00pm.
We are also in the process of working out what we do after this Sunday since the rules change and it will allow us to meet in small groups in pubs, our hope is that we can do that.
These last few weeks and months as we have emerged from lockdown I have been pondering on my own spirituality. I have realised how messy and fragile it is. As a result I have picked up a book by Mike Yaconelli called Messy Spirituality. I’m not that far in to it, but early on he quotes one of the Peanuts cartoons: Lucy is sat at a 5 cent physiology booth, Charlie Brown stops and asks for some advice about life… she says ‘life is like a deck chair on the cruise ship of life… some folks set it up at the back so they ponder on where they have been… others set it up at front to think about where they are going’. Lucy ask Charlie Brown where his deck chair would be? Without hesitation Charlie Brown replies ‘I’ve never been able to unfold one!’
The more I think about it that’s a little bit like my spirituality… I can never get it unfolded… I think most of us feel like that… we don’t really know what we are doing! We seem to plod around trying to work it out the best we can, making it up as we go along… every now and again we have ‘help’ along the way when people say things to us, or we read or hear something, but even some of the most spiritual people I know often still say… ‘who knows?’
I think in these strange times this confusion can be heightened and even put to the test, this is what i have found… I have said a few times that I feel lost… In the initial stages of full lockdown I was noticing things around me in a new way… it was like everything was turned up to 10… I was experiencing beauty everywhere… but now as the uncertainty kicks in life gets more fraught. We see more people, hear more noise and although there have been moments even in the last week when my soul leapt… the overwhelming sense is that of angst, this reverberates around my soul and I cry out… how long Lord, how long!
So, some questions…
What has been your favourite moment of the last few months?
What have you enjoyed about lockdown easing? What has been difficult?
Describe your ‘spiritual deckchair’? (If not a deckchair, what else does it look like?)
What does messy spirituality mean for you?
Peace, Rob
Rob Wylie is the founder of BeachcomberFX and guides its leadership team. He has worked in the North East for over 20 years and has vast experience from various roles he has held. He has a passion for Fresh Expressions of Church and Pioneer Ministry as well as beer, beaches and Miniature Schnauzers.
