Where Next?

"Where Next?" is a question that has not only been in my mind quite a lot during the last few weeks, but also has been asked of me on many occasions.

Now that people are beginning to look beyond the summer period, they are realising that the end of my time at Abercorn and Winchburgh is appearing on the horizon.

Of course the end is still a long way, some four and a half months, at the end of November. But see, even I am now counting down in half-months, instead of whole months. And just yesterday, my supervisor and I were working on the preaching plan through until the end of November. It's not that far away now.

We don't know where we will be going next, and not even when we will be going. But the next step in the process will occur on 25th August. On that day, I will hear whether my training has reached completion, or whether I have more to do, or whether my training will terminate without reaching completion.

It's quite a big hurdle I still have to cross over. Until that day is over I cannot make any plans for what lies beyond. Even the plans that we made yesterday might have to be changed depending on the outcome of that review meeting.

My wife and I have been exploring the list of Vacancies, but as yet we have not made any decisions about where we would like to go. We have decided, at this stage, not to go outwith mainland Scotland, but even that 'decision' could be open to change.

And in any case, we don't get a free choice of where to go. We have to apply to congregations with an approved Vacancy, and then they get to choose which one of the applicants they will invite to preach before the congregation as Sole Nominee. They may decline all the applicants and invite further applications.

So despite my desire to know the answer to "Where Next?", and the interest of all those people who keep asking me, we shall all just have to be patient. One step at a time, and the next big step is on August 25th.

Before then, and even after then, I've got lots of work to do. So no slacking, nose to the grind-stone, and stay focussed on what has to be done now. "Where Next?" will become clear later, in God's own good time.

Poetic Prayer

This week there have been some nice days of sunshine. On Friday, I decided to sit in my sunny garden, and spend some time writing prayers for Sunday.

I don't know whether the sun went to my head, but the prayer seemed to flow differently from usual.

I hope you find them helpful.

Prayer of Approach

Father God, as we come to you this morning,
We see tears upon your face.
“Why are you crying?”

“My child,
My heart is full of joy that you have come back to me.
As you cry in your happiest moments, so do I.”

“But my joy is tinged with sadness.
There are so many missing from your company.
I breathed my life into them,
And they have turned their back on me.”

“But you are here. I love you.
I know your weaknesses, your faults, and your sins.
And I forgive you.”

“Wipe away those tears from your eyes,
And I will wipe away mine.
Let us rejoice together in each other’s company.”


Loving God, we pray to you together, in the words of Jesus our Lord,

Our Father who is in heaven,
Hallowed be your name,
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For yours is the kingdom, the power, & the glory, for ever.
Amen


Prayer for Others

God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph,
God of Samuel, David, Solomon, and Daniel,
God of mercy, grace, and loving compassion,
Hear us, O God, as we cry to you in our distress.

When we look upon your face,
Our hearts are filled with joy.
But as we gaze on the world around us,
Our hearts are filled with sorrow and distress.

Our children, Lord, in faith and prayer,
We brought to you right here,
But many of them, Lord, have turned,
And think of you no more.

So Lord, we ask you, watch them close,
And keep them from all harm;
That one day, Lord, they may return,
And worship you once more.

To keep the peace, we sent our troops,
To far Afghanistan.
But some of them are now no more,
To you, they have returned.

Be with their friends and family,
And comfort them this day,
And in Afghanistan, we pray,
Bring peace and hope once more.

O Lord our God, in North Korea,
You are not allowed.
In fear and dread, they fire missiles,
To drop on someone’s head.

Speak peace and love, within that place,
That they may turn from war,
And find that joy that comes from you,
And sleep safe in their bed.

O God of healing and of love,
We think of those who are sad,
Speak peace to them, and hug them now,
And heal their wounds, their hearts, their minds,
In you we trust and hope.

O loving God, you hear our prayer,
And what’s more, you do answer,
We thank you now, and always will,
In you we trust forever.

Amen.

Dumfries Delivery

Yesterday afternoon I enjoyed a pleasant drive from Edinburgh to Dumfries, taking my younger son to a week-long mountain-biking camp. He will probably return somewhat scarred and short of sleep, but hopefully happy and full of new biking tricks.

I took the opportunity to enjoy the late afternoon sun down by the River Nith as it passes through the town centre. The above view, down-river from the weir, is one of the best town-centre views I know.

If you look closely you should be able to see a number of seagulls standing patiently in the water. I thought that perhaps they were too hot and were cooling their feet in the water. Or perhaps their feet were dirty and they were letting the clean water sluice away the dirt.

But the picture below shows that, as they stand patiently, they are working very hard, watching for elvers (young eels) slithering up the weir. The photo below shows a gull standing on the pavement with an elver writhing in its beak, as the gull tries to get it into the right position to swallow. A few seconds later and the elver was gone!

Once is a Misfortune, Twice is Carelessness?

The classic Oscar Wilde play, 'The Importance of being Earnest', is a comic farce in which deception is rife, and in the end it all unravels to the audience's amusement.

There are many famous quotations from the play, but the one that strikes me at the moment is, "To lose one parent, Mr. Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune. To lose both looks like carelessness."

Now I am quick to say that the incident which inspires me to recollect this quote is not the loss of either of my parents, or anyone else's parents either come to that.

Actually, it's about a bicycle, my son's bicycle, which he rode to school at lunchtime, and when he went to ride home, it had mysteriously vanished.

Mind you, when I say vanished, there was actually a small remainder, a residual, a clue, if you will. The locking cable had been left behind, neatly severed in two, just to prove that my son did actually lock the bike to the bike rack.

And the connection to the quote? Well this is the second time the exact same thing has happened in the last six months, from the same racks, leaving the severed locking cable behind, and everyone else's bikes untouched.

Of course, I know that it wasn't carelessness on the part of my son that resulted in the bike disappearing into thin air. One or more villains were and are clearly responsible.

You could argue that he should have used a stronger bike lock, and maybe he will the next time. Maybe I should have purchased and insisted that he use one of these heavy-weight D-Locks guaranteed to resist everything except an oxy-acetylene torch or a nuclear explosion.

Or maybe the school should beef up their security systems, CCTV, locking bike sheds, etc.

On the other hand, after some 3000 years, you would think we might have got the hang of one of the easier commandments, "You shall not steal."

Sing a Rainbow

A few weeks ago, as the sun was setting low in the Western sky, I saw a beautiful double rainbow as I travelled home from work. It was quite like the one in the photo above, although it was taken in Alaska (by Eric Rolph).

This Sunday we're going to be talking about Noah and the story of the Rainbow. I was looking for a Rainbow song, but the only one I could find in my books was 'Who put the colours in the rainbow?' The rainbow is only mentioned in the first line, and I had been looking for a song that talked more about the colours in the rainbow.

So I decided to write an extra verse, and here it is:

What are the colours in the rainbow?
Red is the first one that you see.
Then comes the orange and the yellow,
So far one, two, three.
Green is the next one of the colours.
Blue is the colour of the sea.
In-di-go amongst the showers,
Vio-let’s the last we see?
Red and orange and yellow and green,
Blue, indigo, and violet.
These are rainbow colours seven,
God made us to see.

With thanks to J.A.P. Booth for the inspiration.
He wrote the original song.

And thanks too to Eric Rolph for the photo via Wikipedia.