Here’s a reflection by Kerry Samuels, from the Communion service at City Campus this week.
For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors; you will be my people, and I will be your God.
Ezekiel 36.24 – 28
When I go with my children to stay with their grandmother, Hugo, my dog gets a bit tetchy!
He is really eager to jump into the back of the car amongst the suitcases and bedding for a family outing, but once we have arrived at Grandma’s house, he is vigilant for any signs of our departure.
I think this stems from the time when we left him for two weeks when we flew away to Norway in 2023. He has not forgotten that we ‘abandoned’ him and tries his level best to prevent the same thing happening again.
He sleeps on the rug in the hallway to block the front door and whenever we gather to put on coats to go out, he is right there in the middle of the crowd as if to say, ‘don’t forget me!’
My point is that he has not forgotten what once happened to him, years ago in the same house and takes extreme measures to try to avoid the same thing happening again.
Of course, like any dog owner, I think my dog is very intelligent but there seems to be strong evidence here that dogs learn from their past experiences.
I wonder, are humans quite so aware of learning from the past?
Do we learn from our past mistakes?
Am I as aware as my dog when I am about to encounter danger or loss?
Do you reflect on things that have gone badly wrong?
Do you make a conscious effort to build upon past experiences and make better choices?
This is not just a monologue about being good or becoming better. I would like to invite you to reflect with me as we consider what it is to build upon our experiences of life and perhaps hold a picture of my dog, or your dog, or any dog, in your mind as we look together at,
What it means to make changes in our lives, as a result of living those lives, and learning from our mistakes, just like my dog, Hugo!
It is possible, of course, to consider that some of the best success stories are born out of repeated failure ….
J K Rowling faced numerous rejections from publishers for her first Harry Potter book before it was accepted.
Oprah Winfrey was fired from her first job as a television news anchor in Baltimore because she was deemed ‘unfit for television’.
Eminem, Marshall Bruce Mathers II, was rated by Rolling Stone Magazine as 82nd on its list of 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. He was a High School dropout whose personal struggles with drugs and poverty led to an unsuccessful attempt to end his own life.
But the purpose of this reflection is not to focus on outcomes, about which person thrived and which person was crushed, but it is about how we all live with the opportunities that have passed us by and, of course, the damage we have done to others.
It is a process and a discipline unlike the ‘stories’ of Joanne, Oprah and Marshall, reflections do not really have an ending because, like real life, reflections have a habit of rolling on, presenting new opportunities to heal old wounds. In ‘real life’ we can find ways to mend faults we carry from our past. We do this quietly by using our empathy to draw alongside someone who is struggling, we use our time and our talents to give what is truly appreciated or, like my dog, who uses his presence to be seen by his ‘people’ to say, ‘don’t leave me, I love you’.
If we are to grow as human beings, if we are to learn from our mistakes we do need to put in the effort to be vigilant.
My dog is vigilant, he watches me carefully, anticipates my every move and becomes for me a better dog every day.
Wouldn’t it be amazing if we all had the same commitment as our pets to become better people, to learn from our mistakes and build bridges with people we connect with?
Haven’t we all felt that we want to retreat occasionally, to go unnoticed?
Haven’t we all experienced pangs of guilt as we are faced with things or people from our past?
Haven’t we all stepped into situations where we hope our presence makes a positive difference?
I truly hope so because this is what it means to acknowledge our own brokenness and have a more positive impact upon the present.
It is in the language of our reading, to be washed clean from the past and be renewed for the possibility of the present.
If I can see this in my dog, how much more wonderful it would be for us to see it in each other?
