Look to the Lord and His strength – Psalm 105:4
These words have been ringing in my mind and spirit as I am sure most of us could look to other places or even people. The countless testimonies of God’s people are that when we look to the Lord and His strength, He does indeed provide not just strength but also a measure of His grace and Himself. So may we look to the Lord and His strength. I will mention three areas where I have already seen this at work in All Saints through your partnership in God’s work, and I pray that these will abound more.
Prayer
In many and various ways we learn to pray, perhaps discovering new ways to keep this vital breath alive. The background and foreground of the pandemic may provide for the few some triumphs of increased prayer and vitality, but I suspect for most ordinary folks (like me I should hasten to add!) it is an added pressure and slog, perhaps like cycling up hill, not that prayer was ever a free wheel downhill jolly! We all need to find ways of sustaining this whether in individual daily prayer in different ways, prayer partnerships, prayer groups, or in many other ways. My mind is drawn at the moment to seeing how we can pray together more corporately. I hope to hear you say “with one heart and voice”!!
Care
How impressive to hear unasked for tributes from our members receiving practical care through food deliveries and phone calls. It has been lovely to phone and chat with some of you. Cold calling is a soulless exercise it seems to me, and we have call blockers on our phones but as yet no one has put the phone down when I chirp up “It’s the Vicar. I thought I would just ring and say Hi” I promise not to repeat all our conversations ( ! ) but it is so lovely to hear many people say how kind and thoughtful and caring people are from the Parish. Thank you too for your practical care for our own household in these early days. May our care which often goes unnoticed extend to many others.
Share
I shall be repeating this and I make no apology for mentioning it here with my first formal “From the Vicarage”. Our reason for being a Church family is to share the good news of God’s love in Christ. Time will tell whether our churches have adapted well enough to share in new ways. Not everyone will be a nimble digital spiritual warrior – yes they do exist, there is a whole department in the Church of England called Digital Evangelism, (!) but if the gospel burns strongly enough it will always find an outlet so let us continue praying and caring to find new ways amongst the traditional ways of storytelling and testimony to share the good news of God’s love in Christ. I have been very impressed and thankful for some lovely ideas to make our Lent, Holy Week and Easter time accessible to others.
Our own suggested parish read for Lent which has some good insights into how to share God’s story, is Living His Story by Hannah Steele SPCK . (Details below) I shall be reading this and if you fancy a short zoom discussion about how you find the read and any related issues why not let me know. You could even find someone to go for a walk with to talk over what you are learning.
May we look to the Lord and His strength as we pray, care and share
Yours In Christ
Mark
Lent book: Living His Story - Revealing the extraordinary love of God in ordinary ways: The Archbishop of Canterbury’s Lent Book 2021 By Hannah Steele
SPCK Publishing Available as paperback £9.99 plus £1.95 delivery (Total £11.94) or eBook £7.99
or
Orders should go to Lesley Snell snells@blueyonder.co.uk or phone 0114 296 0432 or text / Whatsapp to 07910 419363. Please order by Sunday 14th February.