Beyond the snow

Once again, this weekend I'm off embarking on more training for the Church of Scotland's applicant assessment process. There's been lots of snow over the past few days so hoping to find a way through. I'm sure,yet again, I'll be stimulated and challenged by all the different interactions and return, as always, exhausted. But, since Sunday looms large, there's no rest for the wicked.

Baling out or stepping up?

"Since God has so generously let us in on what he is doing, we're not about to throw up our hands and walk off the job just because we run into occasional hard times. We refuse to wear masks and play games. We don't maneuver and manipulate behind the scenes. And we don't twist God's Word to suit ourselves. Rather, we keep everything we do and say out in the open, the whole truth on display, so that those who want to can see and judge for themselves in the presence of God."

2 Corinthians 4:1-4

Came across these words today right after a discussion with colleagues about the state of the institutional church and its finances. It's a time for bold responses - not for battening down the hatches. But will God's people rise to the challenge?

A nudge in the right direction

Exploring

Pushing open doors

Allowing possibility to flood in

Scary, daunting, thrilling

Who knows what potential

is about to be realised?

Lent seems like a good time for discovery.

Guided retreat

This year's labyrinth is in the shape of a cross, simpler than last year's Chartres style. There are two optional stations or guided reflections on the journey as well as an encouragement to linger in the centre. These stations change as the weeks of Lent progress and, in Holy Week, will reflect on Christ's last days. Creation of space and time for reflection affords a whole new perspective as we journey, with Christ, to the cross. Thanks be to God.

Life giving discipline

It was a cold beach this morning but bracing and reviving. And full of inspiration. The spirit was glistening on the snow, skipping over the ridges in the sand, being carried in the freezing wind. How is it possible to allow that space so easily to slip away? When the pressure builds, it's one of the first things to slide. Wish I could keep in mind how life giving it is to carve out some thinking space.

Sit here awhile...

Wouldn't it be good just to sit here awhile and contemplate life, the world, the universe?

Maybe this Lent, I will.

It takes two and a half hours to get to this spot from where I am but I'm sure I could find a spot closer to home and recapture some of that space that's been filled up with lots of activity, not all of it particularly useful or healthy.

A good Lenten discipline, for me, would be to recreate a more measured pace and rediscover some tranquillity. Rediscover God on the beach.

Alleluia Retreat

Just 8 of us gathered this morning for prayers in the beautiful chapel at St Mary's monastery, Kinnoul. We sang Alleluias - even though Lent has started. Mainly because I said that I was putting away the Alleluias for Lent - Something we're not overly familiar with in the presbyterian tradition. But I thought it would be fun to make a ritual of that in worship tomorrow and leave behind our alleluias (not that we use very many) for the rest of Lent so that, on Easter Sunday morning, we can experience them anew and be transformed. My colleagues, with whom I was working this weekend, decided I needed to be reminded of what I would be missing - and certainly singing Alleluia in the wonderful confines of the monastery chapel was a beautiful sound. But - if we don't experience desert, we won't know the transformation of resurrection.

And so, undaunted, tomorrow we will put away the Alleluias!