{"id":348,"date":"2019-06-10T13:15:06","date_gmt":"2019-06-10T12:15:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uniofglos.blog\/chaplaincy\/?p=348"},"modified":"2019-06-10T13:15:06","modified_gmt":"2019-06-10T12:15:06","slug":"strength-for-the-journey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/chaplaincy\/2019\/06\/10\/strength-for-the-journey\/","title":{"rendered":"Strength for the journey"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Go Peaceful <\/strong> by Paul Field<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Go peaceful
\nin gentleness
\nthrough the violence of these days.
\nGive freely.
\nShow tenderness
\nin all your ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through darkness,
\nin troubled times
\nlet holiness be your aim.
\nSeek wisdom.
\nLet faithfulness
\nburn like a flame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

God speed you!
\nGod lead you,
\nand keep you wrapped around his heart.
\nMay you be known by love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Be righteous.
\nSpeak truthfully
\nin a world of greed and lies.
\nShow kindness.
\nSee everyone
\nthrough heaven\u2019s eyes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

God hold you,
\nenfold you,
\nand keep you wrapped around his heart.
\nMay you be known by love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those words are an encouragement to live out our faith in a\nbeautiful way. And they are pretty challenging – it\u2019s not easy to live like\nthat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what can help us live like that, as we look ahead in\ndifferent ways to the future? In her lecture on Monday Lucy Winkett focussed on\nthose words from the prophet Isaiah:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018In returning and rest you shall be\nsaved;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

in quietness and trust shall be your strength\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we try to live out of our own resources, even though our\nintentions may be good, we struggle. We get tired, and sometimes disillusioned,\nand maybe angry – and we lose our focus on God. And then it\u2019s hard to go\npeacefully, or show tenderness, or live faithfully. Then we may be known not by\nlove, but by something more negative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lucy pointed out that the verses following on from these talk\nabout riding on fast horses – but never being able to outrun our pursuers. Life\ncan feel like that – we\u2019re being chased by pressures we can never escape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But God is always there, ready for us to return to him\u2026 \u2018Come\nto me,\u2019 Jesus says, \u2018all who are weary and heavy laden\u2019. A few years ago, on\nretreat, I noticed my response to walking up a hill and getting tired – it was\n– push on harder, keep going! But there is another way – allowing ourselves to\nstop, to rest, to return – finding our strength in God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We will all find our way of returning and resting. Lucy was\ntalking about spending time with God in silence, and she told a lovely story\nabout Mother Theresa. One day someone asked Mother Theresa what she talked to\nGod about in her prayers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018I don\u2019t talk to God,\u2019 she said, \u2018I Listen\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, what does he talk to you about, then? came the reply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018He doesn\u2019t talk to me, he listens.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Sunday churches will be celebrating Pentecost – the coming\nof the Holy Spirit upon the followers of Jesus, with tongues of fire and the\nsound of a great wind. But there is, surprisingly, another story about Jesus\ngiving the Holy Spirit to his disciples.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Message translation puts it like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The disciples, seeing the Master with their own eyes, were\nexuberant. Jesus repeated his greeting: \u201cPeace to you. Just as the Father sent\nme, I send you.\u201d Then he took a deep breath and breathed into them. \u201cReceive\nthe Holy Spirit,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just stopping to breathe, and recognising the breath of the\nSpirit filling us, renewing us, giving us fresh strength and vision – we can do\nthat wherever we are – here in the university – in our new life beyond the\nuniversity – wherever we are – making time each day to return and rest,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lord, we come before you with all that is going on in our\nlives, in our minds, in our hearts\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We think of those who are moving on, into a new chapter of\ntheir lives. And for those who are keeping going here. Lord, give them the\nstrength they need – give us the strength that we need\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In all the challenges that we face, Lord, may we each sense\nyour gentle Spirit within us, guiding us and leading us on…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lord, we offer ourselves to you – guide us, empower us, and send\nus out to make your love known in our world\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Go Peaceful  by Paul Field Go peaceful in gentleness through the violence of these days. Give freely. Show tenderness in all your ways. Through darkness, in troubled times let holiness […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":53,"featured_media":349,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reflections"],"blocksy_meta":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/chaplaincy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/chaplaincy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/chaplaincy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/chaplaincy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/53"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/chaplaincy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/chaplaincy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/chaplaincy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/chaplaincy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/chaplaincy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/chaplaincy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}