Rectory Ramblings… July 2024
Monday, 24 June 2024 17:50
“God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their multitude. And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done.” (Genesis 1:31-2:1)
It seems hard to believe that we are already in July, Midsummer Day is behind us and the nights are drawing in! I jest, but in all honesty I do not know where the first half of this year has gone. I did think that this year would be quieter and slower than last. Without the added burden of moving house and getting to know a whole new set of villages and parishioners, I thought I would have more time for reading for pleasure this year, but it seems not to be the case.
In my corporate days, before changing to full time ministry, much was said about work-life balance and the need for rest periods and family time. However, the reality was we had all signed “working-time directive waivers” and the company expected to come first. The pace of modern life and the global economy does not help either. Before the days of electric lights, telephones and now the internet. We lived according to a natural rhythm. When the sun went down we had to stop work and rest. Spring and autumn were the days for hard work, the short days of winter were a time for rest and the longer hotter days summer a time for relaxation and play. The power of electricity seems on the surface to be a great blessing, freeing us from the constraint of daylight length and enabling global communication, it has done so at the cost of a natural and healthy way of living
There is great wisdom in the rhythm and pattern set out for us in the opening chapter of the Bible. God made, then he took time to enjoy seeing what he had made, and then between evening and morning he did nothing more. There is wisdom in the pattern of taking regular complete days of rest. All work and no play doesn’t just make Jack a dull boy, it leads to exhaustion and burnout. So this summer, between the fetes and weddings, services and sermons, and everything else that fills my week, I will be making time to stop and rest, to recharge and refocus. I encourage you all to do the same.
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? […] Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these.” (Matthew 6:25,28-29)
Revd Eddie