Happy New Year! We are now a week into 2025. Have you decided on any resolutions? Have you kept the ones you have made?
I don’t make resolutions. Or, I don’t make New Year Resolutions. The pressure to be original and the lack of hope that I will actually stick to them put me off. Instead, I ask God for a word for the year; a word (or phrase) which gives me a clue about what is to come, a word or phrase I can come back to as the year progresses, a word or phrase which I can reflect on at the end of the year and realise God did way more than I expected.
In the past, my word for the year has been trust (involved moving house and a new job), surrender and grace (that was an interesting year!) and last year, the word was renewal. Looking back, I renewed some friendships, renewed some passions and renewed my passport(!), but there was also renewal on a deeper, more personal level. Off the back of the summer trip to Taize, I had a renewed relationship with God. And across the year I discovered more about myself, and got a renewed sense of who I am and who God made me to be. In other words, it’s been a fruitful year, and having a specific word has helped me to see it.
Why not give it a go? Ask God for a word for this year, then watch as the meaning is revealed. It has enriched my faith, maybe it can enrich yours.
As I write I am watching the sun rise over the hills surrounding this french community (quite a feat for someone not normally a morning person!) I am coming to the end of a week at Taize.
For those who don’t know, Taize is a religious community in France, slightly north of Leon. It was started in the 1940’s by Brother Roger and continues today as a place of pilgrimage and retreat, especially for young people, served by a community of Brothers. Taize is particularly well known for its chants – simple short verses of music sung repeatedly, with words like a prayer in many different languages.
That’s a snapshot overview, and about as much as I knew before I arrived.
What can I say about my week at Taize? On practical matters, the beds in the dorms were good (can’t speak for those camping) and the showers were decent (but good idea to get to them soon after they’re cleaned!) The food was pretty simple, and for those with dietary requirements (like me) sometimes disappointing. The benches for sitting on became uncomfortable very quickly, and the floor in the church took some getting used to.
But you don’t go to Taize for the food. And you don’t go for luxuries – it’s not a hotel or a summer holiday! It’s a place to seek God, a place to serve together, a place to worship.
Speaking of worship, visitors are asked to enter and leave in silence, creating a prayerful atmosphere. Coming from an English church, it was refreshing to be able to sit in quietness and still my mind. And the singing – wow! Taize gathers together people from across the world. As a way of honouring the cultures, there are chants in most languages. They are short enough and simple enough to be picked up by everyone. And I found myself singing in English, French, German, Spanish, Polish, Russian and some I couldn’t identify. Joining in with over a thousand voices singing the same words over and over was quite an experience. Someone explained that by singing the chant repeatedly, we are encouraged to go deeper rather than go on, which goes against what we are used to. There were translations written underneath each chant and while singing we could reflect on the short statements, meditating on the words and allowing the message to penetrate deep into heart and mind. And occasionally, to stop and listen to the other voices, basking in the harmonies and marvelling at the beauty of the sound. A friend I met there described it as being held by a warm embrace. I think that is a good description of an experience I’ve not found anywhere else.
Each morning one of the Brothers taught on a passage from the bible before sending us off in small groups to continue the discussion. We listened to Brother Paolo share his wisdom, balancing historical fact and biblical context with modern day stories and application. His sense of humour made it fun and drew me in, even making the benches bearable. He gave us some little nuggets that resonated with me (and may find their way into future posts!) and allowed us to look at the passage with a fresh perspective in our groups.
I was truly blessed with the small group. There were 4 of us from across England who hadn’t been before, 1 from Germany who had been once before and 2 from France who were seasoned veterans of Taize, calling it the ‘best place on earth!’ Using Brother Paulo’s talk and our own experiences, we had some brilliant conversations, and in a way only possible in such circumstances, found ourselves trusting each other quickly. I really hope to stay in touch with the very special people from that group.
We were also given the opportunity to meet with the Prior, Brother Matthew. After Evening Prayers we were taken to the garden in the Brothers side of the compound. Brother Matthew joined us and pointed out the moon just beginning to rise over the distant hills. We then sat in silence and watched the moon rise. It was a reminder to me to enjoy the simple joys and keep watching for beauty.
For me, Taize was a spiritual realignment. The experiences and busyness of the last year had left me weary, and serving others in the way I have been had left my own relationship with God a little neglected. Taize was a chance to stop and re-evaluate, a chance to receive the love and friendship of others, and a chance to turn back to the right track, putting God first. The whole experience was a reminder to look at the bigger picture. The food wasn’t great, but at least I had something to eat. The seats were uncomfortable, but at least I had the time and freedom to sit. Sometimes the storms in life threaten to overwhelm, causing us to take our eyes off of Jesus and start to drown. This week was a nudge to look again, to focus on the blessings rather than the storm.(I know that’s easier said than done, but it’s good to be reminded that we have a choice about how we view things)
They say no one leaves Taize unchanged. I can tell you from what I discovered there, that’s true. But don’t take my word for it, make the journey and experience it for yourself.
It’s Easter Saturday, the day between Jesus’ crucifixion and Jesus’ rising. I have a number of friends who have already put up their colourful Easter wreaths, who have already started wishing others “Happy Easter”, even my t-shirt says ‘Spoiler alert! The tomb was empty!’
None of these are bad things – we live in a world where Jesus has risen, where we know the end of the chapter. But as we read the story in the bible, Jesus dies on the cross and is buried, and then we skip a day and it’s the day after the Sabbath. One gospel says on that middle day the Romas posted guards so that no one could tamper with the body. Another says that because it was the Sabbath, Mary and the other women rested. So Easter Saturday is quick to jump over.
And in life, it’s easy to overlook ‘Easter Saturdays’. We want to do something, fix something, jump to the next good thing. Some would say we have a culture of impatience.
But, reading between the lines, Easter Saturday is hugely important. We hear how the disciples couldn’t stay up and pray with Jesus, maybe not understanding what Jesus was trying to tell them or realising the significance of what we now call the ‘Last Supper’. We hear of them resisting Jesus’ arrest but then running scared. We hear of Peter’s denial, of John and the women standing near the cross weeping. We hear of Roman soldiers jeering then one changing his mind about who Jesus was.
And we hear that Jesus died quickly. Not quickly enough to avoid suffering – I’m not downplaying what Jesus went through – but crucifixion was a slow painful suffocation and victims would push themselves up on their feet to enable themselves to breath only for the pain to get too much (if they were nailed) or their strength to give out and they would slump once more and struggle to breath, this drawing out the end as they naturally fought to stay alive. The others crucified with Jesus had to have their legs broken to hasten the end. But Jesus was already dead. I haven’t studied this in great detail, but to me that suggests that Jesus didn’t fight the inevitable, he didn’t try to prolong his life. He accepted it, as he did in the Garden when praying, as he did when he didn’t resist arrest, as he did when he didn’t defend himself on trial.
But then we are quick to jump to ‘the disciples rose early and found the tomb empty’ skipping over a day of waiting, a day of silence. I would guess it was a day of disappointment, of lost hope, of seemingly broken promises as the one who was sent to save now lay dead on a tomb. A day of heartbreak and uncertainty as a man they had loved and trusted was now gone. It’s an uncomfortable day, a day of silence and waiting, a real test of faith, a day when negative emotions may have surfaces – paralysing fear, overwhelming guilt, unimaginable sorrow.
We are blessed to know the next bit, but Jesus’ followers at the time didn’t. They didn’t have anything to distract them – they couldn’t work on the Sabbath, they didn’t have TV or games, they just had each other in the grief. Can you imagine it? Everything you had pinned your hopes on torn away as you watched helpless?
Let’s not skip over the day of waiting, keen as we are to celebrate Easter. Let’s join the disciples waiting in silence. And as we wait, try thinking about what Jesus did, willingly and lovingly. I imagine it’s not easy to face that sort of death with the courage to that Jesus did, to be in such pain and still find the strength to cry ‘Father forgive!’ But that indicated the strength of his love for us.
Aware I have 2 day’s musings to write up, I am nonetheless pushing forward to write today’s musings. They are musings triggered by a sermon I heard yesterday. Well, part of it.
I was visiting friends and we went to their church, so the voice at the front was new to me. They started with an image and some thoughts around that before moving on to their main point and there was a lot of wisdom, but it was that initial picture that captured my imagination.
The picture was a medieval depiction of a passage from the book of Numbers. I can’t find the exact image online (if I do stumble upon it, I replace the one below) so I have gone for a similar one. The passage it is based on is during the time that Moses was leading the Israelites through the wilderness. They had escaped from Egypt but hadn’t yet reached the promised land. They had been grumbling because they were hungry and in general it seemed that morale was low. The bit that’s relevant comes in chapter 21. The camp is invaded by venomous snakes. The Israelites didn’t have a cure, so if they were bitten it was a death sentence. They called out to Moses who looked to God. God instructed him to make a bronze serpent and put it in the centre of camp where all could see it. When bitten, the Israelites had only to look at the bronze statue and they would be healed.
In the image we were shown, there was indeed a serpent on a pole in the middle. And Moses stood just to the left with a stick pointing to the serpent. But in the background on the right there was a man with a stick who appeared to be trying to beat the snakes – he was taking the role of protector on himself and judging by the number of snakes, failing. In the same sort of area there was a figure who had been bitten and someone next to them embracing them, comforting them. They had taken the healer role, although it didn’t look like it was going much good. In the front right was another figure who had just been bitten, and they seemed to be looking to Moses, the visible person who had been leading and ‘providing’ for them – he was putting his trust in man, not God.
The thing is, the instructions given by God were simple: look at the bronze serpent. They didn’t need to waste energy trying to beat the snakes to death, they didn’t need to offer false comfort, they just needed to look at the snake.
It got me thinking, how often do I hear God’s instructions and say, ‘I hear you, but I think I should…’? How often do I disregard the simple reliance on God for my own skills, my own actions? How often do I look to people instead of God? How often do I complicate things instead of simply following instructions? What if I just trusted God’s plan?
It definitely got me thinking, and I wonder if it will prompt you to think about your choices too. God is a lot more capable than we are – maybe we should try trusting him.
I had an unusual week which just left me without time to write a blog post on a couple of days, although I did draft the idea. This one was a reminder in a book I had been reading called ‘God is closer than you think’ by John Ortberg, one of my favourite theological writers. In the first chapter he directs the reader to a painting.
It’s the painting in the Sistine Chapel called ‘The Creation of Adam’. It depicts God and Adam, although Adam has already been created. God is on a shell shape surrounded by heavenly beings and they appear to be flying or hovering. Adam is on the ground. But there is a huge difference in body language. God, the all powerful one who doesn’t need anyone else but desires relationship is shown leaning forward, reaching to Adam. Adam, the fallible human who does need God is shown lazily lounging and almost half heartedly reaching out to God whilst also leaning away.
There is a space between the fingers, God’s index finger reaching out to touch Adam, Adam’s fingers drooping at the end of an arm that is resting on his knee. Adam seems to be waiting for God to do all the work. And God can cover that distance. But…
How often as we live our lives is that us? God wants relationship. He desires it so much Jesus shared in our mess and suffering and died so that we could have that relationship. But God wants relationship, not mindless robots that do as their told. We have to choose relationship too. How often are we like Adam, leaning backwards and expecting God to go all the way? How often do we fail to make the effort to reach out to God, to put some effort into building that relationship? God has come this close to us, all we need to do is straighten the metaphorical finger – set aside time to pray, say sorry for the things we have done wrong, show kindness to a neighbour, whatever it might be in our context.
We just have to close the gap, God has already come near. Feeling alone? God is there. Feeling burdened? God is there. Feeling busy? God is there. Feeling hopeless, depressed, stuck, elated, content, surprised…? God. Is. Right. There.
On my way to rehearsal this evening, someone drove into the back of me. Coming up to a roundabout, the car in front of me stopped to let a pedestrian cross, I had time to stop but the car behind me didn’t. The noise was the worst bit, but no one was hurt, the car in front drove off as they weren’t affected, and there was minimal damage to the cars.
When we got out and exchanged details, and the driver said that really it was the driver in front of me’s fault, the one who had stopped for the pedestrian, shame we didn’t catch their details.
What does this have to do with God? This seems to me to be a good allegory for how life can go. In this situation, I had done everything right – I was paying attention, I had left a good stopping distance, my lights were on – in fact, there was nothing more I could have done to prevent this.
In life, we can do everything right. We can be kind and respectful, we can be generous and charitable, we can be good citizens and human beings and still find ourselves in trouble. It’s not all to do with us. Other human beings can make a mistake or choose to act in a way that is not as generous or kind. In this situation, for whatever reason, the driver behind me didn’t stop in time. But what was worse for me was the way they didn’t take responsibility, but instead tried to pass that onto a third party. Again, a parallel with life maybe? The one in the wrong trying to pass the blame?
God gave humans the freedom to choose. Sometimes we choose to do the right thing, sometimes with the best of intentions we get it wrong, and sometimes we just make bad decisions. And so often, innocent people get hurt, either physically or through wrongful persecution.
God never promises this won’t happen. In fact, the psalms are full of the psalmist lamenting the fact that those doing evil seem to be rewarded while those who are good suffer. But what God promises is that he will be there with us, and that what is to come is better. He promises his own justice in eternity, and that is a merciful justice that we can trust – God sees more than us and loves harder than us and there is no one else I would want to judge me.
So when those metaphorical car crashes come your way that you couldn’t prevent, it’s not a punishment for something you have done ordained by God, but God is there with you, telling you to breath, making a strong cuppa, giving you a hug, and God will see justice done, his justice. You can trust him, he’s got your back.
The other morning I was up early. I’m not usually a morning person, but on this particular morning I was up and active early (and slightly tired). And I got the opportunity to see the sky change from dark to slightly grey and then a glorious sun rise. It was beautiful and breathtaking – clouds in various shades of pink above the houses and the sun crept over the horizon against a light blue sky.
Just over an hour later, the sky was dank and grey, and half an hour after that it was raining, but that moment of sunrise was picture perfect (except my pictures never quite do nature justice).
A book I don’t often quote, Lamentations, says: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
It got me thinking about how we don’t always see the sun, and sometimes it is grey and rainy, but the sun is always there. Each day is different and out of our control, but God is a constant – like the sunrise, God is always there. How amazing is that?!
It doesn’t matter whether we’ve messed it up or if things have been thrown our way, each day is a chance to start over and try again. God doesn’t hold our past against us so we should let it go too.
If you aren’t a morning person, I would recommend setting an earlier alarm to see the beauty (and soon because the sunrise gets earlier when the clocks change!) If you are regularly up early, pause and take in the sunrise, don’t take it for granted. And remember as you do that each day is a new opportunity to experience God.
John 3:16 is one of the most well known and frequently quoted bible verses (in my experience, I haven’t done a detailed study!) It says, ‘God so loved the world that he sent his only Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.’
It is a good Bible verse, especially when praying for someone – it is good reminder that we are all loved. There are others. 1 John 3:1 ‘See what love the Father has lavished on us that we should be called children of God’ is possibly my favourite.
The limitation of the John 3 verse is the condition that can sometimes be read into it – that we must believe before we are loved. 1 John 4, a few verses later than the one I just quoted states, ‘We love because he first loved us’. The love comes first. Before we have done anything, said anything, become anything, we are loved. After we have stumbled, made a mess, been scarred, we are loved. God’s love is bigger than anything else, it’s a theme that runs all the way through the bible. You are loved.
The other day I came across the picture at the end of this post and I had a lightbulb moment – we are all loved and we will never meet someone who isn’t. The best or the worst of us is a Child of God. Sometimes that may be hard to swallow, and sometimes that is a huge comfort. God’s love for us is unconditional – it’s about who he is, not what we’ve done. Take a moment to think about that and let that sink in – you will never meet someone that God doesn’t love.
My brain is a little fuzzed this evening. The way things have worked out recently, proper days off don’t come easily, I have to properly plan them in. I’m sure I’m not alone in that. It is so easy to be tempted into working, either for our paid job if we are fortunate enough to have one or for somewhere we volunteer our time. In fact, it is almost cultural to be busy all the time, and taking time out can feel looked down upon.
But Jesus took time out – he often retreated to spend time in prayer and his disciples had to go looking for him. And in the creation story, God set a day aside to rest and look over all he had done. Constantly doing stuff is not a biblical principle and also probably isn’t healthy.
Being busy is a good escape and distraction from things we don’t want to face. It is a good way to give ourselves a sense of worth and accomplishment, albeit temporary. But the thing is, we can’t keep it up forever. Sooner or later something will come up that is outside of our control – maybe we will end up ill, or the place we are being busy at will be closed for some reason – and we will find ourselves with time in our hands and those things we’ve been running from catch up, or our sense of worth has nothing to latch on to and we plummet emotionally.
The psalmist says time and again to rest, to ‘Be Still’, to ‘Wait for the Lord’. Maybe what some of us need this lent is to slow down, to take time out. Listen to your body, listen to your brain and listen to your heart. If anyone of them feels tired or ‘fuzzy’, maybe you need to take a Time Out and refresh yourself somehow, with a coffee, and good book, a walk – something that is definitely not work.
If Jesus could find time to take a Time Out, I think we should make time too.
Jesus lived 2000 years ago. (I know, technically Jesus lived from the beginning as still lives now, but his earthly life was 2000 years ago). In the time since his death, resurrection and ascension, there have been millions if not billions of people who followed him and his teaching, commonly called Christians.
In some Christian traditions, some of these Christians are especially important – they have lived a life that was virtuous and holy and pointed to God. They are grouped together as Saints. A large number of the Saints appear to have been martyred, although I haven’t studied them all.
For this tradition, the Saints can intercede on our behalf and therefore are prayed to in certain circumstances – for example when travelling, St Christopher may be prayed to as patron saint of travel. This is not a tradition I was brought up in or taught about, but I have friends that it is important to, so I asked about it. They had a couple of responses:
Intercessors
We often ask our friends and communities to pray with and for us. Praying to the saints is like that – asking other Christians to pray with and for us. This is a principle in the bible which Paul talks about when writing to give advice to other churches.
Prayers of the righteous
Following on from that, in James’s letter, he writes about the power of the prayers of the righteous. The saints in heaven definitely come under that category, so it makes sense to ask them to intercede.
Learning
This was my favourite response: they have lived such interesting lives and can teach us so much – we would be missing out on so much to ignore them. This is the reason for my bog post today. The Saints have led interesting lives, come up against all sorts of trials, have lived in the real world, made mistakes and still left a legacy that points to God. They come from all backgrounds, all nationalities, all ages – they are all so wonderfully different like us. Their stories are so rich and they have so much to teach about living in step with God.
Growing up in a church, I wasn’t always great at listening to the sermon, but from my seat I could see a stained glass window with St Martin, who saw a beggar by the roadside and cut his cloak in half to share with the man who had nothing. It’s still one of my favourite stories. St Francis and St Clare were rich nobles who gave everything up to follow Jesus. Contemporaries in the same area, they ministered differently. Francis travelled around to spread the gospel, Clare set up an abbey for girls to join her and dedicate their lives to God.
The Saints offer us a rich tapestry throughout history of people who lived their lives for God, who didn’t have it easy but chose to do it anyway. If they could walk through their trials and still lean on God, then so can I. I have a book of Saints through lent – one saint a day, just a snippet and what that may teach me – and I am looking forward to the lessons God will teach me through it.
Do you have a favourite saint? Maybe there are a couple whose stories can inspire you. If you are looking for a way to grow closer to God this lent, why not try looking at these Christians that history has remembered as good examples of followers of Jesus?
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