Stumbled

She stumbled forward, slipping on the scree on the road perhaps. As she went, she called out my name, but I was already grabbing an arm, steadying her, preventing a fall. She flexed her ankle, thinking perhaps it had twisted, but no, it was fine, and on we went.

It’s good to do life with friends. Sometimes they may slip, sometimes I might, but when we walk with others, we fall less often.

It’s good to do life with Jesus. He never slips, but is a constant support on whom I can lean. Today I step out with him, in the company, too, of good friends, all walking each other home.

Support?

‘Don’t you want a support, Michele?’ the yoga teacher asked. Well yes I do, but my back doesn’t arch high enough to get that blinking brick underneath it. ‘Yes, it does,’ she counters, padding over to ‘help’ me arch a little higher. And discovers that actually, I was right. My back doesn’t arch a little higher, so she fashioned a lower support on which I could rest. Whew.

Forgive, Jesus says. Some folk have been hurt so deeply that actually, they just can’t. They may be trying, but they just can’t. I was trying to arch my back more, but I just couldn’t. But maybe with practice, a bit of flexibility and strength will come.

Jesus came to carry our pain. He understands when we just can’t live the life which is best for us, and that’s why he’s given us his Holy Spirit. To support us. To enable us to let go of the hurt, resentment, anger, whatever, bit by bit, however long it takes. 

He is our support. He has infinite patience, and love for every one of us, especially those wounded and limping through life. He will never break a bruised reed, and underneath are his everlasting arms. So we can go ahead, give it a try, and know that even if we can’t quite do it, he’s there for us, keeping us safe, loving us.

Green string and Christmas

I just noticed a piece of green plastic string – probably 2 metres long – tied to the curtain rail and left hanging there since it helped support the unstable Christmas tree five months ago.

I’ve been aware it was there but suddenly it is getting in my way. But I’m aware that actually, it’s only seven more months till we probably will have another unstable Christmas tree requiring a steadying support. Has everyone else been wondering when the slapdash homemaker would get around to taking that green string down, or is everyone else as blind or unconcerned about it as I have been?

It’s amazing how we can have artificial supports in our lives which we gradually become unaware of. They become part of the furniture of our minds/lives/spirits. We rely on them sometimes even more than we rely on God, whose support is secure, natural, supernatural even, and never breaks or lets us go.

Will stop now and get the scissors. At least I can attend to that pesky green string.

Support

The clematis needs support. It needs a trellis, screwed onto the wall above the dining room window,  to entwine itself into, because otherwise it flops down, leaving the dining room in darkness. 

Now, in the autumn of the year, it flops even more hopelessly as its leaves droop and drop. That will, of course, allow more light in, but we are entering the dark phase of the year when light is short and night is long.

For some reason this all reminds me of the church. We all need support. We need other believers to entwine our lives together, encouraging and maybe sometimes even carrying each other as we walk each other home. 

Without that support, the light that is within us is dimmed by the trials of the world. Without that support, the light that we crave is shrouded and obscured. 

Jesus said to keep our lights visible. The light of Christ shining out of each of us, when we entwine our lives together, gives light in a dark world and fosters hope in dark days.

I thank God for the vibrant church of which I am a member. Support is never lacking, and the light shines bright.

No support?

There’s a climbing rose outside my bedroom window.

It’s been there for several years now. When we first planted it, the trellis which supported it was adequate. But over the last couple of years, it has shot up beyond that trellis and is reaching for the roof.

But there is no support beyond this now rather pathetic looking trellis. So waving at me as I stand inside the bedroom, is a rather weak, long branch of what could be a beautiful rose bush. 

It won’t be beautiful, though, if it isn’t properly supported. It will be gangly and straggly and battered by the wind and weather. Any peach-coloured roses it might have borne will hang their pretty heads and die.

Sometimes people wonder if you have to go to church to be a Christian. No, there is nothing in the Bible that says that. But unless a believer is part of a support network, it is easy to begin to weaken, to sway and get battered by the storms of life. 

Church is a trellis for the Christian. It may not meet on a Sunday morning. It may consist of a couple of friends who meet up every week for a time of sharing and prayer. A vibrant faith needs the support of other believers. 

Jesus calls himself the vine, and his followers the branches. We need to remain rooted in Jesus, and supported by each other.

I am so grateful that God has given me a great trellis.

Without Support, the Plant Dies

For weeks now the clematis has needed a trellis or wire on the wall. I’ve watched its fragile stem bend over and hang down. I’ve watched it, out my kitchen window, be hammered by the wind, blown about and bruised until some bits finally died.

So this morning I declared (sweetly) I would no longer wait for the handyman to put up the trellis. I’d found some green wire and that was my first job of the day.

He let me get underway. He heard the ladder scraping against the stones as he worked at the computer upstairs. Fear drove him outside. Fear that he might next hear a crashing of ladder to ground and then ... nothing.

Well, it’s a tactic that’s worked a few times in our 37 years together. Glad to see it still has power.

And so the drill came out (how can a man do anything without a drill?), the sturdy wire was found, the eyelets screwed into the concrete and hey, presto, the clematis is now ready to grow (if it ever warms up), securely supported against the wall.

It wasn’t only the clematis that needed support. I wasn’t really in danger of dying (I don’t think, anyway!), but had I been left to do the work, it would have been much less robust and probably would have been inadequate within a few months or years. 

Makes me think of Paul’s definition of the church as a body made up of many parts, each person with her own unique gifts to share. One of the gifts is of encouragement. An encouraging word can enable someone else to flower. An encouraging word is often unnoticed by others, but forms the support on which a fruitful church can flourish.

I hope that I am always open to encourage others to be all that they can be. I may be rubbish when it comes to DIY handy work, but I can open my mouth and tell others what a good job they are doing.

Which reminds me. I better just pop upstairs to the man on the computer, and tell him how wonderfully stable the clematis now looks.