Thursday 15 May 2014

A sad story about orange juice - and other things....

I had one of those days earlier this week when it felt like some invisible ‘techno’ forces had all conspired to focus on me for a few hours – and what fun they had!  The first inkling I had about this was at the weekend when it dawned on me that this message I received about three months ago telling me that my email account was being dropped by BT wasn’t a fake missive but the real McCoy!  However, it’s really advantageous having teenagers in the house at times because that problem was almost instantly solved by one of them setting up a new account for me and then transferring all my 34,000 (yes, that’s right 34,000!) archived emails from one account to the other. 

But then a ‘virus’ attacked and everyone on my address book was informed I was stranded in Italy or somewhere needing the bus fare home!  That evening we had about fifteen phone calls at the manse – some even offering to pay!

To cap it all the Tesco delivery man knocked on the door with a grin on his face saying here was our weekly order – just one carton of orange juice – yes, we had booked the delivery slot and held it open with the juice selection but then forgot to fill in all the other things we needed!!  It was kind of him to say he would try to get the delivery charge refunded – otherwise what we are drinking now is the most expensive box of orange juice in Christendom!

I then set off for an evening meeting and realised I’d left my diary in the vestry of the Crematorium Chapel where I’d been earlier in the day.  I ‘winged’ my way through the meeting not entirely in control of all we were deciding together – ‘what’s new’ I hear some of you say!

I expect we all get days like these!

Part of my understanding of faith is that it would be a mistake to only think we might experience and encounter God in the serene and peaceful moments of life.  I think I once held that view – but no longer.  Although I still believe that faith can bring a certain sense of ‘order’ out of chaos – making those all important ‘connections’ in our lives - I now recognise that it’s often in the crisis, struggle or confusion that we especially need faith and actually ‘find’ God.

Of course nothing I went through earlier this week was anything other than mildly irritating – but the fact that even these ‘minor’ things got my blood pressure up makes me realise just how much I need to be aware that God isn’t absent in the bigger challenges of life, instead he is waiting to meet me there.

I’m off now to complete next week’s Tesco order!

With best wishes,


Ian

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