What does hope look like to you? (Debs)

What does hope look like to you?  During uncertain times it can be difficult to define what is hope?  Hope is something that we put our feelings, thoughts, and our mind into.  Is it the flower growing through the cracked pavement, is it a sunrise, or is it just knowing that tomorrow will be better? 

Hope can have different levels, you hope for good weather, you hope for good travels, but what inspires hope in your soul? Desmond Tutu once described hope is to believe there is light instead of the darkness.                       

If we consider our current world, one filled with dread and fear, one of suspicion and illness, how can we hope?  During the COVID 19 pandemic in the year 2020 we hear many stories of people dying, people being infected, isolated, losing their jobs, and their livelihood, but we also hear stories of hope.  Complete strangers sharing their lives, sharing stories, videos, thinking differently, online choirs?

Whoever thought getting dressed up to put the bin out would make headlines? 

But that is hope, seeing light, creativity, and joy even during darkness.  No matter how you feel, believe there is still hope, there is still light and there will be a point where we come out of the other side.  Be the person that emerges from this wave as one holding hope as their torch and love and compassion as their battle cry.  If we keep trying and living there is always hope.

A Couple of Pieces Left Over

I often think about daily tasks and how am I going to arrange my day....how life can get so messy and how are we ever going to get through it.  Last weekend I went to my mums to put together a kitchen cupboard for her.  Unlike Jesus I am definitely no carpenter, I hate measuring and have the approach of just do it...why bother with instructions.

I collected the boxes of flat pack furniture full of enthusiasm and thought, I can do this how hard can it be......after all I can monitor the most complex patient, deliver life saving treatment and decipher the worst doctor handwriting.....so off I went to the local furniture store.

I happily picked up the boxes and unpacked them in my mum's kitchen.  I just stood there looking at all the pieces of pre-cut timber, and what appeared to be bags and bags of nuts and bolts, screws and objects I had no idea what they were.

With one more shake of the box, the instructions appeared from the bottom of the box.  The instructions were on one piece of paper which had clearly seen better days.  As I stood there contemplating the task, I felt the Holy Spirit gently whisper, like everything in life there are instructions, and even though when it seems the task is impossible and confusing if we follow the instructions we will eventually complete the task.  

After I stood back and looked at the finished cupboard, it looked good, not perfect, and there were a couple of pieces left over. I still don't know where they go or should have gone. It didn't matter, because the cupboard was functional and fit for purpose.

Our lives are often like that, we have bits in life where we don't understand where they should go, or why we went through that particular phase, but if we trust God and trust his purpose in the end we will come out ok as well, even with battle scars or pieces missing, because the master carpenter he knows everything. 

I write this blog with my husband in Ipswich Suffolk and me in Ipswich Queensland but through it all we know God has called us to be two voices to watch over the cities he has planted us in, not my first choice but it seems to be Gods.  If you are struggling today, take heart, take courage and know as long as you trust in God it will be ok, just like the cupboard it is not perfect but serving a purpose.

Jer 17: 7-8

But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord,
    whose confidence is in him.
They will be like a tree planted by the water
    that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
    its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
    and never fails to bear fruit."  

Create your Hotspot!

Three of us went bird watching last Thursday.  It was one of those days when we didn't quite know where to go, so I looked on ebird.org to see what birding hotspots there were in the Ipswich area. As the walk organiser, I suggested that we go to Sparrowe's Nest Farm, and we had a beautiful afternoon in the sun watching around thirty Skylarks who seemed to be singing with joy. I don't know what you know about Skylarks but as they sing; they travel vertically upwards 50 to 100 meters. For a little bird that seems to involve spending a lot of energy. We saw quite a few other birds on our trip. After a while, we were joking and saying that it was really weird that we had never visited this place before.

It turned out that one of our friends John, who wasn't with us on Thursday, had been to this location so frequently and recorded his sightings, that ebird.org then had created it as a Hotspot purely because he had visited so many times. We felt that John had never really mentioned that he had ever been there. Of course, it might be that we haven't been paying attention to what he's been saying to us. Either way, his consistency in visiting the spot and recording bird-life has brought results. People who don't know the area can find a beautiful spot to watch Birds. While at the same time ebird.org can compile scientific data.

Today I was thinking about this experience. I think ther is a parallel with the spiritual life. We can turn our prayer places into spiritual hotspots by turning up regularly, observing or listening, paying attention - recording what we find in our journal.

To be honest, if we do nothing, nothing will happen. Yet when we start to pray and listen to God regularly, good stuff just starts to happen. I believe it is true to say that if we make ourselves present to God he will be present to us. St. James talks about this when he says "draw near to God and he will draw near to you."

We can choose to approach God at any time. He is a God that allows himself to be discovered. If we set our hearts to expectant, pray and listen we will start to change.

On Thursday we could have decided to stay at home, the weather was changeable; I was tired. But the walk and the effort was worthwhile and we had an experience that we would have never had had if we hadn't taken action.

I will leave that thought there for the moment. I want to tell you a bit about why Debs and I have started writing again after a pause. We are married but through circumstances and Covid-19 we are living on the opposite side of the world to each other. We have decided to reinvent the Ipswich Watchman blog as "A Song for Two Voices." And write about things that are happening to us.

Fall fearless into love

I am marvelling at this phrase "Fall fearless into Love" that I found at the end of a blog. It is meant as a trigger point for meditation. A phrase to turn over in the mind as you go into silence.

God of mystery. Your perfect love "drives out fear" may we (or I) trust in you more today.. Let me fall into love. Let me fall into your ways of loving. Ways that liberate. Give me compassion for others - make me tender hearted. Let me fall fearless into your way, into your love. I know then I will find peace.

May I find contentment with you. Like a weaned child as it says in psalm 131 - or like the bird in the picture my wife took, may I find my nourishment by foraging on the things of God.

Blessings to you and your day!