Finding our Middle – 40 Days with Anna
Day 25 – Wednesday after 4th Sunday of Lent
To Read:
I like mathematics. I see it as the most beautiful, most exciting, most poetic, and the most sublime of all activities. I have and have had for many years a little plaything, a toy, something I like to consider and something which sparks off ideas in me. It is simply two circles of heavy copper wire linked together like two links of a chain. I play with this so often that at times I am quite unaware that I have it in my hands. On one occasion I was holding it so that the circles stood at right angles to each other.
Anna pointed to one of the circles and said, ‘I know what that is
– that’s me.’ ‘And that’s Mister God’, she said, pointing to the other. ‘Mister God goes right through my middle and I go right through Mister God’s middle.’ And that’s how it was. Anna had grasped that her proper place was in God’s middle and that God’s proper place was in her middle. That might be a little difficult to come upon for the first time but the taste of it gets nicer and nicer, and of course Anna’s ‘Cos I ain’t frightened’ was completely without blemish. This was her structure, her satisfactory picture of how things were, and I envied her.
From the Scriptures:
Jesus said, ‘If you love me, you will keep my commandments.16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Comforter, to be with you forever. 17 This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him because he abides with you, and he will be in you.’ (John 14v15)
To Reflect:
The thing that convinced (and convicted) me about the presence of the Holy Spirit was praying with two brothers with whom we worshipped at the church of Christ the King, Mondeor in the South of Johannesburg. It is a church that is very precious to both Lesley-Anne and I as it was there that we first met. It was there that we were married a year later. And it was the church that sent us on the journey of ordained ministry and gave us much needed extra financial support.
We were part of a prayer group along with brothers Richard and Frank, which often included a time of waiting on the Spirit. One of them would speak out loud in perfect French and the other would interpret. I say ‘interpret’ rather than translate as neither of them had ever learnt to speak the language! However I could and knew that what was being said in French was being correctly passed on in English.
This was one of many moments in life when, like Anna, God the Holy Spirit has gently crept up alongside me, given me a nudge and said ‘Here I am. Surprise!’
Perhaps, being a ‘Navy Brat’ and living in a sequence of Married Quarters around the United Kingdom and then South Africa, I have not always found it easy to work out where I belong. Until recently the longest I had lived in any single place was Boarding School so ‘belonging’ is a very difficult idea for me to grasp[i]. To use Anna’s language I had no idea where my middle was. To have not one but several Holy Spirit ‘Gotcha’ moments is a blessing which I pray that many will share.
One of the leaders of a university Bible Study group I used to attend in Cape Town described Anna’s, and my, experiences in this way. ‘You’re not sure of what or exactly how things have come about but you “know in your Knower” that God is with you, walks with you, and watches over you.’ Of course being Tertiary level students we then spent time working out exactly where this mysterious organ the ’Knower’ was in our bodies… In the end we decided that it was somewhere between the heart and the stomach and contained the best parts of both of them.
‘Cos I ain’t frightened’ is one of the reasons why Anna is able to reach out and claim that ‘Mister God goes right through my middle and I go right through Mister God’s middle.’ And in so doing she is able to help lead us further on the journey to seeing how big Mister God is.
To Pray:
Faithful God,
your deliverance is nearer than we know;
free us from fear
and help us to find courage in your Word,
Jesus Christ our Lord.
(Prayer for Psalm 56 – Common Worship)
To Do:
1) In Rumer Godden’s book ‘In This House of Brede’ she tells how the nuns at Brede Abbey each have a trysting place somewhere where they can go to find God in their middle. If you have such a place try and spend some time there before Easter. If you do not, use the time until Easter to find a little holy corner where the Holy Spirit can sit next to you and say ‘Gotcha!’
2) Is there anything that stops you from inviting Mister God into the middle of your life? Let go of it now.
Please Note: These reflections are also published on my blog: suffolkvicarhomes.com on Bluesky as @suffolkvicar.bsky.social, and on my public Facebook page Suffolk Vicar – Rev Andrew Dotchin. If you would like them as a daily email please send a request to revdotchin@gmail.com
If you have enjoyed reading them please make a donation to The Clergy Support Trust who provided a generous grant to help me find the space to compose them.
Acknowledgements:
Quotes from the book ‘Mister God, This is Anna’ are Copyright © Fynn 1975
Illustrations from the book ‘Mister God, This is Anna’ and ‘Anna and the Black Knight’ are Copyright © Pappas 1975
Psalm Prayers from Common Worship: Daily Prayer, material from which is included here, is copyright © The Archbishops’ Council 2005 and published by Church House Publishing
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
These Reflections, ‘Finding our Middle – 40 Days with Anna’ are copyright © Andrew Dotchin 2025 and may be reproduced without charge on condition that the source is acknowledged.
[i] For a fuller exploration of this please read my blog ‘God is from Essex and Other Good News’
Suffolk Vicar 
One thought on “Finding our Middle – 40 Days with Anna – Day 25”