Ready, steady, slow. Hit the ground kneeling. Do nothing to change your life. Discovering what happens when you stop. These are all titles or phrases from publications by our Bishop, Stephen Cottrell, in which he asks questions such as, when was the last time you had a real day off? Ditched the 'to do' lists? Switched off the phone? Had a lie-in? Sat in the bath until the water went cold?
Most of us live at break-neck speed. Busy lives - work, family, friends, endless tasks - leave us with little time to sleep, never mind stopping and reflecting. We urgently need to stop imagining everything is so urgent. We need to learn to slow down, Bishop Stephen writes, and stop ... and breathe. I could certainly do with taking that message on board, although it is easier said than done. Even Bishops, given their busy schedules, could benefit from the practice and not just the theory!
August is one point in the year when it may seem slightly easier to stop and reflect, although school holidays and holidays per se are not without their stresses and strains. What a good holiday should do, however, is take us out of our usual routine and away from the constant notification of new tasks that characterizes our working lives. Even this is becoming more difficult to achieve as mobiles and the internet enable us to be contacted virtually wherever we happen to be.
Isaiah 30.15 - "In returning and rest you shall be saved" – is one passage that Bishop Stephen quotes. What kind of rest will you experience this summer and will it save you? The letter to the Hebrews suggests that we are made for rest; that the purpose of salvation is to enter into the experience that God had of resting on the seventh day: “… there still remains for God’s people a rest like God’s resting on the seventh day. For those who receive that rest which God promised will rest from their own work, just as God rested from his. Let us, then, do our best to receive that rest, so that no one of us will fail …” (Hebrews 4. 9-11)
Our summer breaks can be pointers to or reminders of this greater (eternal) rest that we can experience in God, perhaps as we trust him more fully with our lives or ultimately as we enter eternity. In an article for our parish magazine, I've asked the folk at St John's Seven Kings to reflect on how we can be saved by rest as they (hopefully) take some kind of well-earned summer break? Although that is the pot calling the kettle black, I will try to as well. It may even be that we can learn to manage our busyness and business differently in future as a result.
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The Kinks - Sunny Afternoon.
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