The Rector's Message |
The Year of Grace: 2008 In our dining room in the rectory I have a large pot in which a number of daffodils are beginning to sprout. I'm watching them carefully because daffodils are very special to me. They are a symbol of death and resurrection my death and resurrection you might say because of what happened to me at Easter 1997. We were living in England at the time and I was working as a prison chaplain. It was very rewarding work to me but very demanding as you can imagine, with many stresses and strains. Just after Christmas that year, I got a very bad dose of the 'flu' but being who I was at the time I kept going at work and in my studies, not listening to what the Lord was saying to me through my body and through my wife "slow down, take time off to recuperate etc" No. stubborn as I was I refused to slow down and kept going until to my shock and horror I had a full blown breakdown, a depression something that had never happened to me before. So I had to stop work for many long weeks but the Lord never forgot me and as I clung to an old wooden cross in the night-time of my fears God began to heal me. And my healing took place at the same time as the wild daffodils were blooming everywhere as they do in England this time of the year. So as I say they became a symbol for me of Easter of death and resurrection as I 'died' to my old ways of thinking that at 55 I could keep on going regardless of my body's needs. I 'rose again' into a deeper wisdom and greater reliance on God and what he was saying to me through my life circumstances. I 'rose again' too into a deeper compassion for those going through stresses and trials and depressions, which I must confess, I had had little understanding of before this experience. Some of you I know are going through difficult times in your life right now. May I encourage you to seek Jesus at this time just as I sought Jesus at the time of my breakdown. And we meet Jesus in his word in the Bible. So read the Passion and Easter story afresh imagining yourself in it which you are spiritually speaking. Seek Jesus too in wise, mature Christians, in whom we can confide and share our burdens just as I did at the time of my breakdown. I remember an old Roman Catholic priest restored my faith in myself when all I felt at the time was a complete failure. And so may God bless you as you walk the Calvary Road from death to new life this Easter. It's a good preparation for that final road we must all walk with Jesus across the frontier of death into eternal life with him. Yours in Christ, Tony |
