During the long drive back to Melbourne from a recent family holiday in Queensland I asked the kids what the best thing had been for them during the holidays. Naturally the theme parks we had visited (Dreamworld, Movieworld etc.), the warm winter weather, and surf beaches figured prominently in their answer. When the question was put to me, however, I had no hesitation in answering “just reading books.” This seemed incomprehensible to kids but made perfect sense to me. As much as I had enjoyed the above mentioned attractions the freedom to just sit outside with a book I actually wanted to read, or to just sit and do and say nothing and let the world slip by, was the most refreshing and exciting thing the holidays offered. Oh to just be! There was a time in my life when I thought activities such as prolonged periods of “shared silence” were for monastics and other fanatics, when I thought I had to attend an all night prayer meeting to get close to God, when I thought that “reflection” and “meditation” was a terrible waste of time, and when I thought that those who spoke of the “mystery of God” were backslidden, not “real” Christians, or worse, Catholics or Anglo-Catholics. I have long since changed my mind on all of these things. M. Scott Peck is surely right in saying “it is healthier to live with mystery and unknowing… than with simplistic answers. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in his wonderful little volume Life together, talks about rediscovering the often neglected and forgotten “ministries” of silence, meditation, and listening, and of developing the ability to find and to meet with God in the midst of the routines of everyday life. Another book I had the pleasure to read during my time away was an ordination gift from a former Associate Priest in my parish called Franciscan Spirituality. It was written by a Franciscan friar, Brother Ramon, who describes at one point his constant experience of being surprised by God’s presence during the routines of everyday life; “There are times when I am digging in the vegetable garden, perhaps at sunrise, when I feel the gentle and sensitive approach of the Holy Spirit. I can then continue the manual work in a rhythmic and gentle manner, allowing the Lord to fill my mind and heart with his love” (p.123). This points for me to an important truth. Although it is essential to develop an intentional time of prayer and to be disciplined in drawing aside and seeking God, it is also true that God is always with us, at every hour and every minute of every day. God is present with us as we drive, walk, ride in a bus, or flash by on skateboards and roller blades. God is present with his people in the workplace, in the home, in the schoolyard, during our leisure times, and in all the busyness of our day to day lives. In the years prior to my ordination I worked in several jobs and spent several months unemployed also during the recession of the early 1990’s. As I read his words I could recall being surprised, like Brother Ramon, by the gentle presence of God with me on many occasions during my working life - as I stood in a queue waiting to have my dole form stamped, as I carried wheelbarrow loads of bricks through muddy building sites, as I stacked boxes in a storeroom, operated a processing machine, even as I shovelled offal into the Hortico bin at an abattoir. Sometimes it was a “still small voice” within, sometimes an indescribable inner sensation, sometimes it was the words or actions or another that declared the unmistakable presence of the holy. Each time this happened the struggles, pressures, and trials that so often fill the day seemed a little less important and a little less severe. Whatever mountain it was I was trying to climb that day got a little bit smaller. The journey I was on was made a little bit easier by the knowledge that I was in no way journeying alone. In my last job before entering theological college I worked in a very busy sales office in the city with a remarkably mixed group of people, all of whom continue to be friends today although I rarely see them. The boss was a Greek who was always laughing; the assistant manager was the laziest, rudest, and crudest person I have ever met; one of my colleagues spent his entire weekend in nightclubs; another played in a rhythm and blues band; one was a busy single mother who had that rare ability to be everyone’s best friend in the office; another was an openly homosexual man; and another of my colleagues was keen to tell everyone at every opportunity that he was a born again Christian. Sadly, this well intentioned and sincere fellow believer was clearly the unhappiest, the most visibly distressed, and the least liked person in the office. In contrast to my other co-workers he rarely smiled, hardly ever laughed, and walked around the office frowning all day (he reminded me of Heathcliffe in Wuthering Heights). He did look or speak or act like a person who was regularly surprised by the gentle and mysterious presence of God the Holy Spirit alongside and within him as he went about the daily routines of work among a group of people whom God also loved dearly and wanted to reach through him. If one thing despairs me about religion it is the way that so many of Christ’s followers so often appear to be unhappy, stressed, and incapable of, or unable to, simply enjoy the wonder and beauty of life. It is the way that so many Christians respond to those around them with hardness and severity, with anger and offence. It is the very frightening ability that religion has to make it’s adherents angry, intolerant, and even hateful. If this is what faith looks look to the outside world, no wonder they are not lining up at the Church door! Cactus Christianity indeed! I try to make it a habit to ask myself what sort of person I might look like to those around me? One who is often pleasantly surprised by the presence of God? One who has gratefully received and who now lives out the “abundance “and “fullness” of life that Jesus promised to his followers? One whose “joy had been made complete” in Christ? One “sent out” from Sunday worship “in the power of the Spirit”? One who loves? |