Every Day with Jesus

Discernment is essential in following Jesus. It’s distinguishing between reality and personal preference. Often, what I discern is not as appetising as what I’d like. So for me, following Jesus did not include experiencing personal emotional and psychological pain. Yet, on reflection this yielded a richer experience of God’s presence and reality.

I don’t know if you have ever tried lifting someone who doesn’t enjoy control over their muscles and limbs? I have when working as a carer. Because they could not cooperate with my attempts to lift them, I was lifting a ‘dead weight’. It was an impossible task. The psalmist reminds me that I have to cooperate with God rather than assume that God will deliver me from discomforting situations.

Considering eternity, I’m challenged by the quote, ‘Many long for eternity, when they don’t know what to do on a wet Sunday afternoon’. I can quickly grow bored but pursuing a prayerful life has, with twists and turns, brought me into a space where I can’t remember experiencing boredom. 

In our home, I love our garden. The autumn presents a stunning display, a plethora of colours. The bare boughs of winter, stark against the bleak skies, contrasts with the bud and fresh flowers of springtime. Always alive, it declares God’s unsearchable character. We run a retreat called ‘Eyes Wide Open’. It offers an opportunity to find God’s presence in the sights and sounds of nature. As St. Pa...

Christianity is about learning to stay true to one’s decision to follow Jesus. Life has its ways of testing our resolve. There is good precedent since all the disciples abandoned Jesus at His arrest. This abandonment wasn’t a reflection of their love, rather an acknowledgment of their fear and uncertainty. Faith will always have a shadow of fear to accompany it. 

One of my most challenging experiences was to visit refugee camps. I met people who had nothing, completely dependent on the goodwill of others. Their human spirit revealed itself in the ways they managed their daily lives. Yet some grew despondent, seeing daily life as a fruitless distraction from their responsibility in securing their family’s future safety.

Christianity is not a performance industry. God has no interest in our performance, which is something we manufacture for some purpose we perceive is beneficial to us. Performance measures how well I do something. This is not the measure God applies. Our friendship with God is only possible because of what Jesus has won for us on Calvary.

Life is a marathon not a sprint. I’ve a friend who, as a child, wondered why adults always walked. In contrast she joyfully ran everywhere and promised herself she’d continue running once an adult. Sadly the ageing process had its way, and childhood pledges made way for adult realities.

The earliest Christian writings emphasise human behaviour. Ignatius of Antioch writes, ‘It is right, therefore, that we not just be called Christians, but that we actually be Christians’. worthy of the Lord, our daily challenge.

Here in St Cuthbert’s Oratory, a home of prayer, our three watchwords are hospitality, hope and healing – three gospel gifts we receive. God’s hospitality welcomes us to our salvation banquet. What’s more, He promised to feed us with bread for both stomach and spirit.

In reading the few surviving Christian texts from the second century, I’m struck by the importance of two small words: faith and love. St Ignatius of Antioch related them to the Eucharist and they were associated with the disciple’s way of life.

We have taken a week exploring Spiritual Formation, or how to grow up into maturity in Christ. It is the goal of every follower of Jesus to become more like him and to pray the words of St. Richard of Chichester daily, ‘My Lord Jesus Christ, may I know you more clearly, love you more dearly and follow you more nearly, day by day’. 

If ever life overwhelms me I stop to consider those Christians who have gone before me. It was the great Christian survivor of the Ravensbruck concentration camp, who said, ‘Today I know that the experiences of our lives, when we let God use them, become the mysterious and perfect preparation for the work he will give us to do.’

Ive found it’s all too easy to lose sight of God in life’s many twists and turns. I remember going shopping with mum as a child. I’d get distracted by everything around me and lose sight of her. Then my heart beat faster, lost and alone amidst a sea of legs and arms.

Growing up I was of the opinion that God was something of a spoil sport. I assumed that God was a cosmic police chief issuing a long list of restrictions that impacted my personal freedom. Only as I got to know God did I discover that in fact I enjoyed the greatest of freedom.

Love is an indefinable quality. We can describe it, yet can never capture its true essence. This can only be encountered through experience. What’s more, love is never static. It is either growing or dying. 

As a teenager I turned up at university with little idea as to what I wanted in life. No career aspirations and little motivation above personal enjoyment. It was to my great surprise that I encountered Jesus within just a few weeks. More surprising was my willingness to commit to following in His footsteps. 

The Covid-19 pandemic made us all conscious of our mortal fragility. It spotlights a deep, underlying concern that impacts all of society; health and wellbeing. This is reflected in the huge sums invested by drug companies right through to the pressure placed on GP surgeries as we prepare for the worst and hope for the best. However, we are far more than physical beings. There is within everyone o...

This week we shall explore spiritual formation, the heartbeat of discipleship. This is Waverley Abbey’s core mission: seeking to live every day with Jesus. It is a journey on which we deliberately and consciously open up our lives for a deeper connectedness with God.

Understanding and belief are different. Belief is the acceptance that something is true without proof. Belief is faith and offers understanding with legs on. Faith carries us somewhere, whilst understanding leaves us motionless. The first disciples understood Jesus as risen, they had tangible evidence, yet they needed the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, born of obedience and prayer, to believe.

Grace is the remarkable gift we discover in Jesus. Peter, so confident in his faith, stumbled when denying Jesus at his arrest. Now, embarrassed by his betrayal, he returns to fishing, his hopes dashed, his spirit broken. However, the great news is that his friends stuck with him. We live in a time when many are aware of their fragility. 

Thomas is forever associated with doubt, when in fact he was full of belief. He did demand to place his finger in the wounds to establish this was really Jesus, but when he encountered Christ he immediately acknowledged him as Lord and God.

For a second time Jesus speaks peace over the disciples. When something is repeated in scripture, it is a clear assurance of its truth. We see this throughout the psalms, and it strengthens faith. This peace is confirmed by the gift of the Holy Spirit. This third person of the Trinity, who is God, resides within us to lead us into all truth.

When confronted by our fear we often find comfort in the companionship of friends. We are made for relationships, and perhaps the hardest test to endure is being robbed of those we love and trust. Last October, having lived separated from her family for seven months, my mum succumbed to her 95 years and died. I am left wondering, if normal visitation had been allowed whether she might have continu...

It’s said that ‘seeing is believing’. The inexplicable must be seen for what others say can’t be trusted. We need tangible proof. Yet here Peter and John reach the tomb and believe on the basis of what they can’t see, Jesus’ body. There is the evidence of the carefully folded shroud, but it required faith to accept Jesus is risen.