We’ve recently had to leave our home of 14 years in the Scottish Borders and after a period of “spare room surfing” with friends and family we’ve moved 60-odd miles south, back into England. We’ve been homeless before, back in the early days of our marriage. Following the collapse of a couple of jobs we simply couldn’t afford to pay the bills anymore, and for a while lived with another family from our church, while we recovered financially and were able to get back to more stable work and income.
Both experiences carried with them a significant sense of loss and uncertainty as we went through those times of transition.
I guess you may be thinking “that’s just how life plays out sometimes”, we all have our ups and downs, and even for those of us who follow Jesus, life often twists and turns in unexpected ways.
I was thinking about all this recently, and smiled when I remembered an incident that happened many years ago, when I was a young teenager. I was at a youth group meeting where we were asked to share a favourite verse from the Bible, something that meant a lot to us. For some reason I didn’t have a verse to share, so I’m ashamed to say I opened my Bible randomly and read the first verse my eyes focussed on. I hasten to say that I do not recommend this method of choosing a significant verse, let alone employing this ‘open and point’ method to get some guidance from God. The verse I had randomly chosen was:
“You have allowed me to suffer much hardship, but you will restore me to life again and lift me up from the depths of the earth. You will restore me to even greater honour and comfort me once again.
Psalm 71:20-21 NLT
Could be the story of my life! As I reflected on my past, I thought about the hardships I have suffered (although they pale into insignificance compared to the things that many people have to suffer). Betrayals in work, in church and in relationships all leave nasty scars. Two lots of homelessness, divorce…actually make that three lots of homelessness…being separated from my children…the list goes on.
And as I was reminded recently when reading John Mark Comer’s excellent book “Practicing the Way”, all these events have a part to play in our formation, in making us the kind of people we are. As John Mark says, “Spiritual formation isn’t a Christian thing; it’s a human thing”.
He goes on to say:
“Spiritual formation is not optional. Every thought you think, every emotion you let shape your behaviour, every attitude you let rest in your body, every decision you make, each word you speak, every relationship you enter into, the habits that make up your days, whether or not you have social media (if you do, how you use it),how you respond to pain and suffering, how you handle failure or success-all these things and more are forming us into a particular shape…We are being either transformed into the love and beauty of Jesus or malformed by the entropy of sin and death.”
John Mark Comer, “Practicing the Way”
Wow! If we thought spiritual formation was all about adopting some ancient spiritual disciplines (good as that is!) we need to think again.
Which brings me back to that verse from Psalm 71. The psalmist has confidence that God has a major part to play in his “spiritual formation”, a God who is faithful, a God who will lift him up, comfort him and restore his life, the life he thought he had lost.
And I want to echo that. However tough these times of ‘hardship’ and change have been, we have always come through them transformed and restored. At least, we have when we’ve chosen not to dwell on the pain from the past and co-operate with God’s Spirit in the renewing process. I can’t pretend that I’ve always got it right, but when I have, God is faithful. And sometimes, even when I’ve got it wrong God has changed things for our good, because God is also full of grace! Some time ago a friend who has witnessed some of these life events commented that she’d always been impressed by the way I “re-invented” myself…I know what she means although I might prefer to say that I went along with God in his process of changing me.
The Northumbria Community has a wonderful liturgy dedicated to St Brendan, a saint who followed the prompting of God and ventured into the unknown. Towards the end, we find these words:
“I choose to live beyond regret, and let You recreate my life.
Brendan – in exploration of a vision from Celtic Daily Prayer Book One
I believe You will make a way for me and provide for me,
if only I trust You and obey.
I will trust in the darkness and know that my times are still in Your hand.
I will believe You for my future, chapter by chapter, until all the story is written.”
I hear echoes of those verses from Psalm 71 in these words, but they take it a bit further. God’s promises should not induce in us some kind of passive belief. Faith is about action born out of trusting what God says. It’s about moving forward hopefully. It’s about focussing our eyes on the possibilities and stepping through opening doors. It’s about being changed to be more like Jesus.
Pilgrim Traveller 