beginning again

My previous post was headed 'the end'.

I realise now, in hindsight, that it may have been misinterpreted as ... well, the end. As in the end of my posts.

Over a week without a post won't have helped dispel the suspicions you may have had along those lines. However, no such luck!

I was simply away on holiday. And not in a position (or, indeed, the mood) to get myself near to an internet cafe and write a daily post.

It would only at best have been 'tourist' sort of stuff. I was down in London for a few days. I've a son who lives and works down there and I thought that I'd surprise him with a visit.

There aren't really many other reasons I can think of for my going to London town. I can't say I've ever really liked the place at all. But I was glad I'd gone and I think he was pretty chuffed when he pitched up at the restaurant for a romantic meal for two (with his girl-friend) and found me sitting there.

Surprise, surprise!

It's good to get away, I suppose. Standing back a little bit and seeing things from a slightly more detached perspective. London looks different from way up at the top of the London Eye or from the tiny little balcony high up at the top of St Paul's Cathedral.

A kind of Horatio Nelson outlook on all life.

So today, in the aftermath of some days away - in a far off city (and the far off world of the book that I was reading) - today's been a case of beginning again.

Getting back to the world of my calling and work. And reflecting again on what it is exactly that God's called me to.

It's had that feel of beginning again.

There were loads of e-mails, of course. Most of them quickly deleted, without a second look. Though even that takes time since there are hundreds and hundreds to work my way through. And some require an answer. (And some required their answer last week!)

It's mainly been planning ahead. Planning the midweek lunchtime service themes for the next twelve weeks or so. Planning the evening services right on 'til the end of June.

And in all of that there's the basic, patient exercise of seeking to discern the mind and will of God. What it is that he's intent on doing through the coming days. What it is he's saying to us all.

And I think it is this business of our simply beginning again to which he brings me back.

Like my desk. I started the day instinctively by clearing away the 'stuff' which littered the top of the desk. Mounds of the stuff.

Papers, notes, books, vouchers, files, cards. Masses of stuff. Which slowly just accumulates. All there for a good enough reason. I've thought I would need it. Or I'd better respond.

There's a reason for it all being there. But it left my desk a clutter.

So I cleared it all away. It wasn't as painful as maybe it sounds. Half of the stuff was long since out of date anyway.

I just cleared it all away. A pristine top, free from all the well-intentioned clutter. Does it not feel good to see a desk like that?!

Beginning again.

Sometimes I guess it's just that sort of thing we need to do within our lives and within Christ's church. What a lot of 'stuff' just ... accumulates.

A good enough reason why all of it's there. But it ends up just a clutter.

I think that's maybe how my life has got. As well as my desk. And maybe the church as well.

Tomorrow's a chance to start again. Our 'Stated Annual Meeting'.

Not quite an AGM, but the one chance in the year when all of us together get the opportunity to pause, take stock and review how things are going and the progress that we've made. Or not.

I met today in advance of that with those most closely involved. Just to go over the form the evening will take. And how things best are done.

Tomorrow's a chance to set before the people here a 'route map' for the days and years ahead. A chance for us all to be beginning again.