following Jesus

A large part of the morning today was tied up in calling, by arrangement, on a lady in another part of town.

She lives right across on the other side of town and that's what took the bulk of the time. A good half hour to get there and then a good half hour getting back. And maybe just about an hour or so with the person herself.

I don't really know her that well. And she isn't a member here or anything. In fact she's a member, I think, of a congregation in a different denomination entirely.

Well may you wonder what a guy like me is doing over there!

Her cousin had died at the start of the year. And the cousin was a member here and lived in the village for years.

Her death had been an upsetting time, for all sorts of reasons. And it hadn't been easy for this lady who was her cousin, on whom the arrangements all fell.

She'd appreciated the practical help that I'd given - and also the comfort she'd found in having me come and read and pray and chat with her, and her husband, too, at the time of the death and beyond.

She called a little while back. Deeply upset. Could I try and call on her. Her husband had died. Very suddenly, and relatively young (I think he was only 66). A few weeks back.

Yes, the funeral now was past. And, yes, the priest had been and called on her. A good few times, I suspect. But would I come as well.

I think somehow, in ways that it's maybe hard to comprehend, she'd sensed when her cousing died the presence of God like maybe never before. I think it was that she needed again. And that's why she called and why she requested I come.

She was looking for Jesus, I guess. It reminded me quite a bit of the way that Martha and Mary sent for Jesus when their brother, Lazarus, took ill and speedily died.

They just wanted him there. And that's how it is with those who follow Jesus. We just go where Jesus goes. And that sometimes means a cross-country hike - as it did when poor Martha and Mary sent out their cry for help. So it sometimes means a trip a cross town as well.

It just goes with the territory. Follow Jesus and who knows where he'll take you.

I think she was glad that I'd gone. I didn't say all that much. It wasn't my words she needed, I guess. Just a sense of the presence of God through the ears of a man who will listen, the eyes of a man who will care, the lips of a man who will speak of God's grace and will pray for God's comfort and help.

She seemed to have found it a help. Just my simply being there in many ways. Reflective of a God who truly cares, and in that care will come, indeed has come, to be beside us in our time of need.

I'd set aside the afternoon to get down to the business of preparing for the service of thanksgiving that there'll be tomorrow: I knew there wouldn't be the time to get it done tomorrow what with all that I'll be doing at the school.

Following Jesus means discerning what he wants to say. And that takes time. A lot of time. Not a thing to be rushed.

But again, the occasion tomorrow's important. And through what's said (and how it's said) there is the opportunity for people there to catch a sense of God's own gracious presence in our midst.

Anyway, I got it done eventually. Not so much a task to be done - as in writing a kind of obituary: more a voice to discern, a word to be grasped, a message from God I need to be clear that I've heard.

That sort of thing can't be quantified in time. Who knows how long it will ever take? It's a timeless and eternal sort of thing.

The word of God. The presence of God.

Bringing both to the people of today's troubled world is a real privilege! And people think I do a one-day working week and live a pretty boring life!