I do not wish to cast a pall of gloom over the Sunday Reflections posts but, as I wrote last week, there are times when being all cheery and perky is just being false. No matter how much we trust the Lord and try to walk in His way, there will be dark times, but we can hold onto the fact that we do have Him beside us on our road. Today’s experience at church was even more heart wrenching than last week’s and an update about the Campbells must be written. I do not think I have ever asked the total strangers (and Day Camp groupies) who read this Blog, to pray for anything in particular but today I would ask that you uphold this little family in your prayers as they walk a very hard road.
We had a small gathering this morning so the preparations I had made for a revolving wheel with trees illustrating the Liturgical Seasons and those of Nature, went unused. I was a bit disgruntled but Victoria, who was at home working on her research paper, was pleased to take away a ready-made lesson for next Sunday when she is leading Children’s Ministry at her Parish in Ottawa. I guess I was more annoyed about having unnecessarily lugged my laptop to church, in the fond hope of doing an interpretive dance to The Byrds- “Turn, turn, turn”. However it was a great blessing to have ridden there and back without getting it wet! Fred chose a group of songs for our worship, which he asked us to sing as prayers as we continued to uphold the Campbells throughout the Service. Jenna gave a very interesting sermon on “time”, from a Christian perspective. One comment that really stuck was a quote from a modern theologian (I regret to say I did not catch his name) who has written something to the effect that if the Seven Deadly Sins were updated, “busyness” might well be a modern counterpoint to “sloth” since most of the world seems to make a fetish of outdoing itself in
constant busyness. Jenna said that she was not suggesting people cut out important activities, but that we can use the time spent in everyday activities to good effect by bringing a slower, more reflective attitude to mundane jobs-e.g. Thinking about the tomato we are slicing: – who grew it, what a glorious colour, great flavour, how blessed we are to have tomatoes to eat, etc.
constant busyness. Jenna said that she was not suggesting people cut out important activities, but that we can use the time spent in everyday activities to good effect by bringing a slower, more reflective attitude to mundane jobs-e.g. Thinking about the tomato we are slicing: – who grew it, what a glorious colour, great flavour, how blessed we are to have tomatoes to eat, etc.
These remarks resonated with me because I sometimes feel that I am swimming so completely against the flow of society( Yes, yes ,I know we are supposed to be in the world and not of the world). But even one’s dearest friends can see an eco-friendly locavore, who repurposes every object, makes everything (including Kombucha and yoghurt) from scratch, only buys fair trade/certified organic etc., as being wildly eccentric.However, I am not going to be swayed by consumerism or society in general, and hope, by going this way, I might at least cause others to pause for a moment and “take time” to consider their direction. Is it better to get things fast, regardless of who made the “thing” and if is was done safely and with a decent wage for the maker? Do we not really value a strawberry more, if we know the farmer who grew it and if the only time we can eat it fresh is in June? End of rant.
And now it is mid-afternoon, Victoria is back on the road home, I am waiting for a friend who is a plumber to drop by and offer advice on my on-going furnace conversion problems.
It is pouring with rain and the brick masons are taking down their scaffolding, leaving behind a glorious mess of sodden brick dust mixed with globs of mortar. Sigh.
This morning’s winds have blown down the rest of the leaves, and blown lots of others onto my lawns so I guess there will be more raking in this week’s forecast!