Autumn in Scotland

Never is Scotland prettier than at this time of year, as summer surrenders to autumn and the trees light up, one by one, in the glorious shades of dying embers. Fruitfulness fades into memory but so does the slavery to grass-cutting and weed-pulling. 

There is a deep sigh. Contented and satisfied. Winter may be approaching but for the moment, I will embrace the moment. 

German guests – new friends – driving off to the ferry from Newcastle and onwards to Hannover. Promises of reciprocal visits. Never too late to make new friends, to see new areas of God’s great creation.

Autumn brings with it a focus on priorities. My priorities are always God, and people. Though sometimes, I confess, I let the busyness of people marginalise God. May autumn bring a deeper wisdom to me as well.

Live from the heart

I’ve got a To-Do list longer than long and feel slightly stressed by that. By a deadline which is looming for giving a talk which I don’t feel I have time and space to prepare in the way I normally would. 

Someone said to me this morning that it’s people’s stories folk like to here. Tell my story in the context of the meeting. 

She is right. I tend to over-prepare. This time I shall prepare as well as I can and leave the rest to God, to prompt, inspire and guide me as I choose my words and my stories and their application.

Priorities. Other things are in there right now and they have priority. A whole variety of things going on, all of which I want to embrace fully and offer whatever I have to help people get over their current hurdles and onto the next, smoother part of their journeys through life.

I determine again to live from the heart. Not the head.

One Hour

“Could you not keep watch with me for one hour?” Jesus asked his disciples. Oh, I can hear the disappointment in his voice, the sadness, and the neediness for others’ prayer support.

Having just been in Jerusalem in March, I can picture the scene. The garden. The close proximity to the city walls and gate. The temple, just on the other side of the wall.

I can imagine the disciples’ exhaustion. The busy-ness of the city. The danger, not overt yet palpable. Whisperings, heads turning, Jesus talking about his death. Confusion. Then the weirdness of his words over the familiar Passover feast.

They’d had a little wine, and a feast. Sleep overcame them. 

I’m sure they wanted to stay awake and keep watch with Jesus, but Jesus understood the problem. “The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.” And yet even at that moment of greatest peril for Jesus, his concern was not for himself alone, but for his disciples.  It was a critical moment for the disciples themselves. “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.”

Of course they didn’t, so they did. If you follow me. They didn’t watch and pray, so they did fall into temptation. Jesus told Peter he would deny their friendship three times. Maybe if he’d stayed awake and prayed, he’d have been bolder. But he fell asleep.

Oh dear. I’m reading my story here.  Sometimes I’m falling asleep. But more often than not I’m just too busy to keep watch with Jesus for one hour. 

Today, may I get my priorities right, and may it be the first day of the rest of my life.

Priorities

I woke up this morning with the excitement of knowing I could get through the day without getting into a car. I anticipated getting on with one or two long-term projects which I want to get done so that I can spend some time writing again. I’ve got an idea, and I want to develop it.

But before I knew what was happening, my day was hijacked. I thought that my to-do list was short but once that e-mail box was opened, it seemed to stretch out and take up the entire morning. 

Now lunch is over, nearly time to walk the dog again, and I’ve done nothing that I’d planned to do.

Self-discipline is required. A setting of priorities and a determination to see those priorities through.

‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you.’

Even at my age, God has plans for me. Plans for the future.  Do they include writing? Or is he happy that I spend so much time on other Christian tasks?

I need to be listening more attentively to his voice, so that I can shed any distractions that have fallen upon me, but which are not mine to carry, and I can take up those things which are for me. I need to know God’s plans.

Anyone else have the same challenge?