It has been 12 days since I last had time to really sit down and write anything. Summer has been a whirl - a whirl of what I'm not sure because even when I look back in my diary I cannot quite see what has gone on.
Tabi and I did get our trip to Blenhiem Palace in at last, though the plan for the summer was to do lots of stately homes but the time just flew by. Its that whole thing of working out how to be spontaneous and how much one needs to plan in. It really has got me thinking about how so often things can just get caught up in today and trying to keep the whole show on the road.
This is a bit how life has been for us as we have got busier. Sometimes time really is just doing the house, cooking meals, working (which I have just started on - and then go on to college soon!!) and of how the more one does that the vision disappears.
I have been praying a lot about the whole thing of the church leaders in Weymouth and of them having to keep the whole show on the road as their congregations expect a sermon every week, pastoral care, the leader to turn up and endorse their various other meetings, etc, etc. But I have also been praying and pondering about what God wants us to be doing. I did have a vision for our town and of praying stuff for it, and we seem to be being blessed by another couple wanting to start a simple church idea in our home, but I wonder with that what vision we should have.
We have been busy, busy just living life, and I feel that we have lost the connectedness between us as a couple and from that have lost the vision we should be praying about. Ok so we suffer from the fact we do see the world very differently and so getting a joint vision is hard work, but it seems to me that the busier we have got the more we have got in with just the business of living life and have forgotten to make time to hang out with God, with each other, not just to watch TV but to pray and to find this vision we are meant to be having.
Oh I could make lots of excuses as to why we haven't been able to do that, and most of them are really good. In fact some of the excuses would involve helping others, but still we have lost the point and purpose to why we are here and we need to refind that.
Hopefully in the busyness of college, family, keeping house, working, etc we are going to understand the urgency of making time to keep that vision in place. And maybe too we will be able to be kinder to those who have got so caught up in keep the whole show together that they have lost the bigger picture.
My prayer today is to help me/us to find that bigger picture, the vision God has for us for now
It has been busy for us too with the garden and the land. Keeping the weeds at bay, grass cut, veg and fruit harvested and processed took so much longer than I thought it would. Fortunately the one thing I have learnt over the years is that there is a season for everything and where we are busy now outside then later on in the year (and it is frighteningly close) the frosts will come and there will be no more gardening, there is not much point in prolonging the crops for ages here in Latvia when there could be 3ft of snow and minus 20s. We have some stuff in the polytunnel but that is only 18m x 6m and not 100m x 4m x 2 and 12.5 ha (33 acres) which we are looking after now.
ReplyDeleteSo my prayer for you is you find a rhythm in the seasons and that the busy season is followed by the fallow season, a time for things to die, a time to wait, and a time to reflect and prepare for the next year.
Interestingly I've had a nice quiet week this week. Led for ages in the garden with my daughter just talking nonsense. Then next week I'm away at a conference then it goes into busy as I start college. First time in nearly 20 years where I have been tied 5 days a week, and I've also taken on these 2 jobs as well. And we have people talking about wanting to start simple church with us so think this is God's season for us to be stepping up. Funny how sometimes busy doesn't seem tiring though
ReplyDeletehave enjoyed reading what you've been up to