where are you

Today saw the last of the midweek lunch-time services for a while.

The folk who come will miss it, I know. It's become for many a kind of oasis in what can sometimes be a desert. A chance to meet for an act of worship, and then to have lunch together. And, of course, there's a bus we lease which goes round and collects a crowd of them - and they all enjoy that, too.

So I feel for them now when there's not going to be that chance of a Wednesday break for a couple of months and more. But we're trying, across the board, to balance our idealism with realism: our passion with patience: our seizing the opportunities with avoiding an early grave.

It's the 'sabbath' principle, I suppose, being applied to our busy weekly diary.

We take a break. In part that affords us the chance to draw breath. Simply to rest. Our bodies and minds need it.

But it also affords us the chance to stand back and do some reflecting. Which is just as important and needed.

In one way and another there has been a lot of that going on today. Pausing with others to reflect and review.

Not simply busily bashing on regardless. Which, then there's loads to do, is always quite a temptation.

I had a long and helpful session along those lines with a couple of folk this afternoon. In relation to some of the things that we've sought to do these past few weeks. Standing back and assessing and seeing how it's all best progressed.

I was in seeing a couple as well today where there's a need these days to be spending some time in seeing what course their lives should now be taking. Not a situation where decisions can be taken overnight. There's a need for some time and some thought and the input of others not quite so involved as they are in it all themselves.

Review. Asking the question, where are we now, and where do we go from here?

The very first words we have from the Lord once it all started going so horribly wrong at the start are that question - "Where are you?" he asked the man in the Garden of Eden.

It remains the primary question we're always needing to ask. Where are we?

I was asking it later this evening as well in meeting with folk who've been thinking a bit about joining the church, professing their faith in Jesus. Where are you?

A 'sabbath' time can put us on the spot. Resting, yes. Reflecting, yes. But the task of responding as well. Where are we, and where do we go from here?

Later still, and an entirely different context, but the same essential process. Folk who've faced bereavement and its aftermath. The need to take stock, to work things through. To stand back just a bit, to reflect on it all.

And the same simple question again. Where are you?

It won't go away, that question!

Where are we? Well, I like the way Luke closes his gospel account. The picture of Jesus, his arms raised aloft as he blesses his people in love. As if the whole thing 'freezes' at that point, so that becomes, for all of time, the great defining feature of the place in which we find ourselves.

Enveloped by the covenantal blessing of the Lord. For good.