on the way

Things very rarely seem to work out quite as planned!

So life is full of adjustments. Adapting all the time to changing needs and circumstances.

I had a call this afternoon from the father of the boys who're being baptised tomorrow morning. To say that's not the case any more. Not tomorrow, at any rate.

He was ringing from the hospital where both of his boys were ill. So they've had to pull the plug, as it were, and the waters of baptism will simply have to wait until a later date.

It's meant I had to change my plans. Adjust the way the service here tomorrow will be led. And what I'll say. Not quite back to the drawing board. But it felt a bit like that.

I feel for them, I'm bound to say. They'd both looked forward ever so much to the baptism of their sons. Family, friends and who knows how many other folk descending on us here to share with them this moment of real joy.

And they were both so thrilled to start the year like this. And so was I! It seemed like a sign. The waters of God's Spirit being outpoured upon us all, right from the start of this new year.

So a big disappointment, for them and for me and for all of us here.

But it got me thinking again about the ups and downs of life. Especially as I'd met a man while shopping in the middle of the day.

The weekly food sort of shop. I've sometimes met him there before. I mean, I know him well, and his family, too, in all sorts of different ways. So it's good to have the chance to stop and chat.

He was saying that he and I should maybe do some 'dialogue' sort of blogging. Me, he said I'm the religious one (a pretty dubious appellation, but I think I know what he means): and he, in his own words, he's the doubting Thomas.

I'm not sure that the contrast's all that fair. I have all sorts of questions, too.

But his words at the shop today, combining with the call-off later on - they kind of underlined for me the major role that doubt and disappointment play in all our lives.

Following Jesus Christ is far from being a constant, soaring 'high'. A lot of the time it's hard and sore. And often there are questions, too, which leave me quite perplexed.

It's called 'The Way'. And the only thing that matters in the end is simply that we're on the way.

Not the finished article. And not with all the answers. But simply on the way. Committed to follow wherever he leads. Even though, most of the time, we don't know where we're going and are struggling to figure it out.