The Yiddish Proverb ‘When you make plans, God laughs’ is as true for those living the Religious Life as for those on the roller coaster of so called ‘secular life’. What plans do we make for when our plans don’t work out?
To walk in faith always means going where we have not been before nor to places where we are comofrtable. To be faithful means a leap into the unknown knowing only that our Beloved holds us.
It is a long journey from ‘I want to be alone’ to ‘use me’ but it is the only journey worth travelling and the only example worth following.
Every so often God works in and through us despite us and uses ditress and upset to bring restoration and renewal.
Until we learn that ‘my’ vocation is as much God’s gift to others as it is to ourselves we will spend more time on caring for ourelves than for others and build a selfish ‘Georgy-Porgy’ theology.
How we welcome lost lambs back into the Body of Christ says as much about us as it does about the penitent. We must beware, in so doing, of turning our God into a Judge rather than a Redeemer.
We often sing ‘All are welcome. All are welcome, All are welcome in this place.’ but not everyoen feels they are. Why doesn’t the church open its doors to those who are ‘different?’
Sometimes lonely but never alone – the church is called to ensure that everyone knows they belong and call us from our ‘aloneness’ into community.
In our busy-ness with all the work we do for the church we may easily forget our call and find ourselves surrounded by shepherdless sheep.
It is easy to see our Beloved as the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep. It is very different when we realise that this means we are called to do the same…
Suffolk Vicar 