Up Hill

Today started out good but has become an uphill struggle and the weight of the world (or is the cross?) is on my shoulders.  Ok, so maybe it is not really that bad.  But it is enough to stop me in my tracks and take me off course.  I guess we all come off course once in a while.  We take a wrong turn and end up with muddy boots from not staying on the path.  Maybe it is time to sit on a bench and take stock.  Yes, the road ahead maybe uphill but I do not tread the path on my own...   

Why do I avoid silence?

  

A rather haunting image of 'Silence'

by John Henry Fuseli (1741-1825) 

Dear God,

Speak gently in my silence.
When the loud outer noises of my surroundings
and the loud inner noises of my fears
keep pulling me away from you.
Give me ears to listen to your small, soft, voice saying:

'Come to me, you who are overburdended 
and I will give you rest...
for I am gentle and humble of heart.'

Let that loving voice by my guide.

Amen.

Why do I avoid silence?


From With Open Hands Henri J.M. Nouwen.

The Journey Continues

 

Christ Bearing the Cross at Calvary

Andrea Da Firenze (1365-68)

Lent 2015 things that make me laugh (or not)

 

A modern painting 'Christ in Gethsemane' 

by Michael D O'Brian.

I am struck by the pain and agony that seems to be on Jesus' face as he thinks about what is to come. 

I should have posted this last year, maybe I did. Technology does funny things sometimes. It's not always easy to laugh sometimes pain and tears get in the pain. Laughter and tears perhaps belong together as part of the creative tension of life. Being human, and indeed being God, is not always easy.

Psalm 139

O Lord you search me and you know me,
you know my resting and my rising,
you discern my purpose from afar.
You mark when I walk or lie down,
all my ways lie open to you (v1-3)

O search me, God, and know my heart.
O test me and know my thoughts.
See that I follow not the wrong path
and lead me in the path of life eternal (v23-24)

Grail Translation, Paulist press)

 

The Sheltered Path

By Claude Monet 1873 

Light of the World

 

This is my favourate Holman Hunt painting, 'Light of the World'.  We have a copy of it on the wall at John street Baptist Church, Stroud.  I also have my own copy of this wonderful painting and often find myself reflecting on it.  I love the way the moon casts a halo around Jesus' head.  

Jesus knocks at the door but the door handle is on our side of the door.  Unless you choose to open the door of your heart to Jesus he cannot and will not enter.  This is the free choice that God gives us - we can either accept Him or reject him.  Your choice....

Today is the start of Lent.  In past years I have joined with my Anglican Friends at college for their traditional Ash Wednesday service.  I have missed that this year.  Baptists are not terribly good at marking this point in the Christian callender; perhaps we should!