presence

The sign at the side of the road is finally there in place!

For long enough the noticeboard's been fairly out of date. Not because we weren't concerned to change the sort of posters that we've put up there. But more because we kept on thinking that it wouldn't now be long before the whole thing would be changed. It was.

The firm who've been doing this for us came and tried to put it up a few weeks back. But the day was windy, the noticeboard blew from their hands, and they had to return and start from scratch again.

As in making a new board.

It looks quite good, I'm bound to say. Gives all the basic info that a person sitting at the traffic lights could want or really register. It's bright and full of colour. And it's got a basic message too.

But it's strange how it's hard to see the old one go. Even though it's long since past its 'sell-by-date'. It's still a wrench to draw that line, consigning what's been there for maybe twenty years and more to memory lane.

Yet it needs to be done. And not just with noticeboards stuck by the side of the road.

There are times when we all must move on. Draw a line beneath a previous episode in life. And launch into the future which, by definition, is unknown.

So there's a certain sort of symbolism, I guess, in this new roadside notice-board going up. Because it is a sort of line we're drawing here as well. We're moving on. Entering a future which is different from the past. And still unknown, and therefore still a risk.

Part of today involved me speaking at length with someone for whom this business of drawing a line is very much the essence of their present need.

It's hard. Especially when the future isn't clear and looks itself quite bleak.

But nonetheless I think that line is needed now. Not least because the present for this person isn't clever one small bit. 'Bleak' doesn't describe it at all. A living hell more like.

It's good to be able to talk. (I know it's a cliche!).

We hadn't arranged to do so, but I'm glad that our paths got to cross. The chance to talk was really quite important and I'm praying hard the way ahead will soon become more clear.

I'll need to walk at least the first few steps along the way together with the person. Help the person out. Push the doors and be there as an almost 'father-like' support.

I think that's kind of what Jesus did as well. He didn't really rabbit on, all words. He got involved. Was there to help. Travelled on the road with folk, not least when things were tough.

And gave them that support. That sense of God the Father being there.

"My presence will go with you" God once said to poor old Moses long ago, when Moses didn't fancy what the future might entail.

Presence. How important that is. How important to be just a 'presence' within the life of the whole community. Just there. I think that's a bit what the sign is about.

How important as well to be there at the side of another in time of need.

I was up at the hospital later on. The traffic was bad so it took me almost an hour - and then I couldn't find the ward for long enough. But I got there eventually.

And the very first thing the person said was simply this - I wondered when you'd come. I knew you'd be, but I wondered when you'd come.

Scary in a way. What would the person have thought if I hadn't in fact made the trip?

Because the fact of my simply being there at her side was what she had been looking for. Presence. A physical, visible symbol of the presence and care of God.

Just being there. "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I wil fear no evil - because you are with me".

Same again, in perhaps the most famous of all the Bible's words. Presence.

I think, in a way, that's what our life is really all about. Bringing into the world a sense of the presence of God.

By being ourselves with people. Physically, visibly, tangibly simply there. In love and care. With power and strength. Helping folk to sense there is a future for themselves and then, as well, to help them start to fashion out that future which the Lord alone can give.

It's the same in the acts of worship we hold. All my preparation is directed to this one concern - bringing folk a sense of God's own presence in our midst.

It doesn't happen magically. It doesn't happen through an excellent performance by musicians or the minister. Or anyone else for that matter.

It happens through a miracle of grace.

It happens through the Spirit of God.

It happens through the word God speaks.

In some ways it's not possible to prepare for things like this at all. In other ways, you can never do enough.

So I've also spent time today on just that sort of work. Directing all my energies to figuring out before the Lord how best we may indeed experience his presence as we gather here together again. That, as the new sign says, this may be very much a place where people hungry for God may enjoy a life-transforming encounter with Jesus.

Meeting God. Experiencing God's own presence here and now.