Nurturing Growth, Encouraging Rest

Spiritual blues?

‘I had always understood lament to be primarily about sadness and tears, a kind of spiritual blues song, accompanied by tears and sung quietly in a minor key.’

Mags Duggan, in her book ‘God Among the Ruins’.

I recently listened to a couple of short podcasts on the topic of lament, on the Biblical Counselling UK website. Joanna Jackson, the Director of Counselling at the All Souls Counselling Service, was talking with Helen Thorne, the Director of Training and Resources at Biblical Counselling UK and here’s how they described lament:

‘An honest cry of the heart, expressing the paradox between the pain of life and the promises of God.’

I like that. If ever there was a time when we needed to be honest about the pain of life, it’s now. And if ever there was a time when we needed to remember the promises of God, it’s now.

I picture myself holding them in my hands – in one hand there is the pain of life in this present moment; and in the other, there are the promises of God. I want to bring them together – but I can’t. Life doesn’t make sense. How do we hold these two things in tension? How can we be honest about the pain of life and yet hold on to the promises of God? Perhaps, after all, that is what lament is.

So here goes with my own song of lament:

How long, O Lord?

How long will Covid 19 ravage our world?

How long will we hear every day of the number sick and the number dead?

How long will every conversation lead to the same topic?

How long will every news bulletin be dominated by the latest statistics, the latest vaccine research and the latest country to top the worst-affected list?

How long will we be barred from spending time with family and loved ones?

How long will most of our conversations take place in front of a screen?

How long will our arms ache to hold our loved ones?

How long will the elderly and vulnerable be left alone, cut off from human touch and the warm smile of those who love them?

How long will we lead lives where it is normal to cover our faces and withhold our embraces?

How long will we worship God together – but not together?

How long will people fear for their livelihoods?

How long will our children and young people wonder about their future?

How long, O Lord?

Yet…….. you are good and faithful and kind, O Lord. That is who you are.

We look to you. We look for you.

Lord, come. Come and rescue us. You are our deliverer, our rescuer, our salvation.

You are our hope. Lord, come! We wait for you.

‘This form of worship, this offering up of our pain, honours God because it brings all that we are in the muddled mess of our lives, and places it as an offering before God.’

Mags Duggan

What does (this) summer mean for you?

For many of us, summer used to mean a vacation in the sun. Now it means a staycation.

According to the Oxford dictionary, a staycation is ‘a holiday spent in one’s home country rather than abroad, or one spent at home and involving day trips to local attractions’.

Some people are going for the former – staying in hotels, B&B’s, Airbnb’s, caravans or tents – getting away from home but remaining in their own country.

Others are choosing instead to enjoy day trips as they explore local attractions.

Whatever you choose to do, it is important that we all get some kind of a break. Lockdown has taken its toll on our mental health and on our relationships.

We need to look back and reflect on what we have just emerged from. None of us have lived through a pandemic before. There are important lessons to learn from it. There are things we will want to take with us out of lockdown and other things we will be glad to leave behind. Let’s not waste the opportunity to reflect on it, before we move on.

But we also need to prepare for what is ahead. Steve Stockman wrote a brilliant article for the Belfast Telegraph, where he talked about stay-cation, sabbath, soul space and Spirit search. In it, he talked about sabbath being like sorbet:

‘Sabbath is a sorbet……Sorbet, they say, is to refresh your taste palate. To get the full flavour of what is next.’

And then we also need to just enjoy the present moment – to have fun, to be with our loved ones, to cherish that time together that we can now enjoy. Take time to watch a sunset, to paddle in the sea, to walk barefoot in the sand, to linger over a coffee, to share a picnic, to watch your grandchildren as they play together, to walk in the woods, to read for pleasure, to watch a movie, to enjoy good food. We may not be able to stay in hotels but we can take shortcuts, buy a few treats, do things differently. As a friend said to me recently: ‘It’s the holidays – we can do what we want!’

Some of us will also want to recharge our spiritual batteries. There are lots of ways to do that. You can read a devotional book by a favourite author; you can benefit from some of the online Christian programmes which are being offered this summer; you can get back into your Christian community; you can take an online retreat.

My first online retreat – ‘Come and Rest’ – is ideal for encouraging you to slow down and find rest.

My second online retreat – ‘Grow and Thrive’ – is an encouragement to keep growing in your faith. We explore how to make our home in Jesus, we look at some spiritual practices and we talk about emotionally healthy spirituality.

If either of these are of interest to you, please get in touch and I will let you know how you can access them.

Whatever you are doing this summer, be kind to yourself and find some rest.

New retreat, Grow and Thrive, has been released!

The new online retreat, called ‘Grow and Thrive’, has been released!

How do we keep on growing as Christians? How do we thrive and not just survive?

This retreat gives you the chance to explore:

The ABC of growing in faith – John 15
How to support growth – spiritual practices
How to keep thriving – emotionally healthy spirituality

There is teaching, worship (led by Keith and Kristyn Getty), as well as time for personal reflection and trying one of the spiritual practices. There is also a workbook to guide you through the sessions – and it is packed with extra resources as well.

You can take all 3 sessions together – why not book a half day to yourself to do that, perhaps during your annual leave? Or you can do one session at a time – whatever works best for you.

The cost is £15, payable online. To register, you can email me at paulinewilson8@gmail.com

Once you have registered, I will send you your workbook and a link to the video sessions.

I hope you can join us!

Online retreat on YouTube

The complete online retreat ‘Come and Rest’ is now available on YouTube.

Many participants followed the retreat last week. God met with us and led us from worry to worship, from being burdened to entering into his rest!

If you missed the retreat, you can take it any time – and I know some participants are planning to take it again. Others are saving it for a holiday week or for a furlough from work.

Whatever your circumstances, my prayer is that you will find it a blessing.

To help guide you through the retreat, feel free to download a copy of the workbook which will not only help you know where you are going, but will also provide you with resources to use in your own personal reflective time at the end of each session.

Workbook Download

Prayer – the Church’s Banquet

While enjoying a quiet morning this week, I started reading this book by Malcolm Guite.

It begins with 27 sonnets which Malcolm Guite wrote in response to George Herbert’s poem ‘Prayer’. Guite basically takes the phrases of Herbert’s poem and writes a sonnet about each phrase. Since the poem starts with the words ‘Prayer, the Churches Banquet’, Guite’s first sonnet is called ‘The Church’s Banquet’. Here it is:

Not some strict modicum, exact allowance,

Precise prescription, rigid regimen,

But beauty and gratuitous abundance,

Capacious grace, beyond comparison.

Not something hasty, always snatched alone;

Junkets of junk food, fuelling our dis-ease,

Not little snacklets eaten on the run,

But peace and plenty, taken at our ease.

Not to be worked for, not another task,

But love that’s lavished on us, full and free,

Course after course of hospitality,

And rich wine flowing from an unstopped flask.

He paid the price before we reached the inn,

And all he asks of us is to begin.

Malcolm Guite

Feedback from online retreat

It has been exciting to see so many participating in our online retreat. It has also been exciting to hear a little bit about what God has been doing in your lives.

If you would like to leave me feedback, I would love to hear from you! You can complete a short feedback form here.

This will help us in planning future retreats. And, to make sure you receive notification of any future events, you can subscribe to this blog.

Thank you – and may God keep you in his peace.

Final session of online retreat

Today is our final session of our online retreat, ‘Come and Rest’.

We will look at Psalm 131 – where we see the soul as a child at rest on its mother’s lap – as a beautiful illustration of the rest which we were learning about yesterday.

You can access the video here.

And in case you don’t have the workbook, you can download a copy here:

Workbook Download

Online retreat session 3

It’s lovely to hear from feedback coming in that God is meeting with different people in different ways – that’s what this retreat is all about.

In session 3 today, we will hear the sweet invitation of Jesus to come to him and rest and we will explore together what that rest looks like.

Here is the link to today’s video session and here is the link to download the workbook:

Workbook Download

My prayer for you today is that you will enjoy the presence of the One who says ‘Come to Me and rest’.

Online retreat session 2

We got off to a good start to our online retreat – Come and Rest – yesterday, as we looked at Philippians 4:6-8 together and thought about what the bible says about worry.

Today we will look at the biblical character of Hannah and learn how she moved from worry to worship.

Here is the link to session 2.

Here is the workbook.Download

Enjoy – and be blessed!

Online retreat – session 1

The online retreat ‘Come and Rest’ goes live today!

You can access it on YouTube, using this link – videos will be released each day at 10am BST, Monday – Thursday.

The videos will remain on YouTube after that, so you can do the retreat at your own pace, in your own time.

You will find this workbook useful in guiding you through the retreat and it contains some extra resources as well.

Retreat workbook Download

When you have taken the retreat, I would love to have your feedback on this retreat as well as your opinion on possible future retreat options. Please contact me at paulinewilson8@gmail.com to request a feedback form.

This is a stressful time for us all. My hope and prayer is that the retreat will be helpful to you in giving you the opportunity to carve out some time for yourself and God.

May God meet with you!