This time of year can be hard work, can’t it? We are still getting up in the dark (although the lighter mornings are nearly around the corner) the darkness comes back all too early in the evening and we have a constant diet of bad news from home and abroad- and that is before we get on to the weather. What is it about this time of year that so many folk struggle? I suspect it is something to do with the darkness, the cold and the bad news but it is more than that- people struggle with life because they are told that life elsewhere, anywhere is pretty good but where they are. We live in a society that is dominated by lifestyle programmes. Young people have to have a life filled with good moments, exciting moments, moments or events that show they are living a great life; middle aged folk are meant to be celebrating life also with their wonderful lifestyle and the elderly are meant to be dancing, cruising and generally forgetting that there is nothing wrong with growing old gracefully. When life isn’t filled with great fun; when you are not out clubbing, celebrating or just generally telling everyone who will listen or read (as is so often the case in our age, thanks to Facebook) that you are having a fantastic time is it any wonder the joy of living has gone a bit flat? As a student I hated this term (it was the old Candlemas Term in the ancient universities) because Christmas had past and the build up to Easter had not begun. It was an in-between period in life made worse all too often by the weather. It was also a metaphor for life.
We recently read the story of the Transfiguration (Mark 9) in which three of Jesus disciples share that glorious mountain top experience but have to come back down to the plain to get on with life. The fun times, the glorious peaks or mountain top experiences we enjoy all too often are transitory but they help us face the ordinary, the dreary, the messy thing we call life. It is dark, it is cold, the news isn’t getting any better but note God is working away through it all as creation prepares to burst into new life again. Easter is coming – new life for creation and for us all.
God bless you in this season.
Tom
We recently read the story of the Transfiguration (Mark 9) in which three of Jesus disciples share that glorious mountain top experience but have to come back down to the plain to get on with life. The fun times, the glorious peaks or mountain top experiences we enjoy all too often are transitory but they help us face the ordinary, the dreary, the messy thing we call life. It is dark, it is cold, the news isn’t getting any better but note God is working away through it all as creation prepares to burst into new life again. Easter is coming – new life for creation and for us all.
God bless you in this season.
Tom