[This reflection was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 26/Jul/2016]
I’ve been drawn again to God’s exciting promise in Psalm 8 v 18: ‘He brought me out into a broad place (a wide-open field); he delivered me because he delighted in me.‘
As I watch Jesus living in a freedom which baffled his followers and infuriated the religious leaders, and hear him say things like ‘Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly‘ (Matt 11 v 30, The Message), something stirs in me!
I guess I’m really asking a big question: Has lockdown been God’s way of teaching me – us – a new way of living, of being called-out ones, people with a passionate purpose, impatient – even angry! – with anything that constrains or limits us? One Bible translation of Galatians 5 v 23, after listing the fruits (or ‘harvest’) of the Spirit, reads: ‘Never set the law above these qualities, for they are meant to be limitless‘. That, I think, is living freely … against that kind of life, as in most translations, ‘there is no law‘.
A prophecy I read yesterday referred to the last lines of Robert Frost’s ‘The Road Not Taken‘. He looks back over the life choices he has made and concludes:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I
Took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference.
I think God has put us in an urgent position. If we can hardly wait for a return to church ‘as normal’, is it possible that we’ve not learned the lessons of the Exodus? That we’re still at the cross-roads?
For me, lockdown has only deepened my determination to follow Jesus wherever he goes and whatever we face together. There are battles to be won and a harvest to bring in!
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Contributed by Dennis Ginter; © the Author
