WEDNESDAY 24 JUNE 2020

Good morning friends,

I wonder how you are doing?

I have to admit I have found the last week or so more challenging in lockdown.

Over the weekend I was acutely aware of the difficulties so many people are facing at this time.

There are some folks who anxious about their health or the health of loved ones. Others are, feeling the deep loss of bereavement, and having to organise funerals.

And speaking to colleagues we have shared how difficult it is to offer the usual pastoral support..............everything having to be done from distance, or visits blocked completely.

On Saturday evening I phoned one of our volunteers, to update her on some work for Monday, and she asked how I was doing. I spoke to her about how I was feeling. And she said three words that lifted me up.............. “I will pray”

Later that evening words from 2 Peter 4-5 + 9-10 came into my mind.

“Come to the Lord, the living stone rejected by people as worthless but chosen by God as valuable. Come as living stones, and let yourselves be used in building the spiritual temple, where you will serve as holy priests to offer spiritual and acceptable sacrifices to God through Jesus Christ.

But you are the ones chosen by God, chosen for the high calling of priestly work, chosen to be a holy people, God’s instruments to do his work and speak out for him, to tell others of the night-and-day difference he made for you—from nothing to something, from rejected to accepted.”

A reminder to me and to all of us that we are all part of the living body of Christ, all part of the ministry to others, all there to build one another up.

In 2015 the theme of “Living Stones” was one the Church of Scotland took up to pray through for that year.

I offer for your encouragement this short meditation and prayer from the book that accompanied that year.

MEDITATION.

“The stepping stones of my life are not measured by the ground beneath my feet, but through the love, the care, and nurture of those who hold me in their thoughts, and treasure me in their hearts.

For they have been the ones who fed me on my journey,

Who helped me calibrate my compass, who celebrated my every milestone,

Who stood by me at every cross-road, and wait to welcome me home at my journey’s end.

PRAYER.

“Lord God of my life, love and relationships,

I give you thanks for lap those who love me each day.

Their faith and love flow through my blood.

Their hopes and pride feed my dreams.

And their support give me strength

Inspired by their, and your love for me

May I seek to be more loving and forgiving,

More gentle and generous in all my relationships with others.