Hello everyone, and welcome back to me after a two-week break, which seems rather extend now, because I managed to get Covid on holiday, and have been hiding away, malingering at home, ever since!
We think that Kate caught it from the hairdressers, and I caught it from Kate, and when we got back she tested negative and I didn’t! I am firmly convinced she is far more resilient than me because she had exactly the same symptoms but seems to be dealing with them rather better!
And so, I have had to cancel meetings and work and church and get people to stand in for me left right and centre. And that of course is really uncomfortable, but it does make you think about what’s really important in life.
Is having a fantastic foreign holiday the most important thing? Clearly not! And those who say it is, I probably just posing on Facebook or something.
Because things go wrong. Because however well you plan the holiday, you have totake yourself, and that’s almost certainly why it will go wrong! (We had a great time, we were just ill as well, so don’t feel too sorry for us!)
And so, what is God saying in the illness and the waiting? Well the first thing is, this illness is pretty mild compared to what so many of you go through weekend week out, and I really take off my hat to those of you who are seriously ill, isolating at home, or worse. You are not forgotten!
And so the next thing is, keep a sense of proportion! I speak to myself rather than anyone else.
And the next thing, I suppose, is: I thank God for people who have stood in for me and done services, and meetings, and generally carried the burden that I would normally bear.
And there’s nothing I can do about that, except perhaps be a little bit humble and say thank you and realise that I can’t do everything all the time.
And perhaps the next thing to try and learn is that time spent getting better is hardly time wasted. It just feels like it at the time, what with glorious sunshiny days passing me by.
I just need a bit more patience that’s all. And you know what I’m going to say don’t you, because it’s an old old joke: God grant me patience, but for goodness sake give it to me now!
And perhaps the next thing to say is that what connects us is perhaps more important than what separates us. As a church community, we are separated by 15miles, and these wretched Covid symptoms, at present. But what connects us is far more powerful and far more important. It is our faith in Christ, and our new life in Him, and our common purpose and values that we share, spoken and unspoken.
It is the prayer that holds us together, the love and concern that connects us, and takes us forward, and this is far more powerful than physical presence.
That’s how it seems to me, and I hope you feel the same way.
My wife won’t let me use her saucepans for my menthol crystal steam inhalations. She says they are for cooking, and she can’t get the smell out. So, I had to get the cobweb curry club cooking pot out the garage and use that. It’s quite big, and the gas pressure is really low, so it took a while… but enough of my domestic problems.
By the time you read this, I shall be getting them from the back of the court I expect, and all fragile sympathy for your part-timer will have evaporated.
Bring it on! And see you soon.