Most of you will know we moved house this week. The removers did amazingly well and finished a day early but now we are left with boxes everywhere. I can’t get in the room that will be my study but I’ll have fun sorting it out and binning quite a bit...
I’ve had to come to Mum’s today for a man to fit a time clock on the heating and to get my car which I left on the drive last week. It’s been an interesting journey!
The picture above is of our busy main road!!!! There is one bus into Wisbech a day. I asked where the bus stop is the other day. Apparently you just stand by the road anywhere and wave at it! My faith in the bus coming, needing to be in Harpenden by 3pm, was minimal, so I called a taxi firm last night. The taxi came bang on time at 9.30 to take me to the bus station in Wisbech. My faith in the taxi coming was minimal as well but I was glad to be wrong!
I had time for a coffee, and I had time to go to the shops.
And then those of us waiting for the Peterborough bus waited. I love the blitz spirit in Britain in adversity. There suddenly begins corporate humour...
Lady to other lady: "has it come yet?"
"No - we're not waiting for a bus we are waiting for Christmas!"
"We've got more chance of that coming!"
At least the Norwich bus came, and another Norwich bus came. The Peterborough one was 35 minutes late. Some were fretting that they would miss their train being so late at Peterborough station.
They needn’t have worried! The train was late. Just like the bus. And the train was so full, I had to stand. We got to Kings Cross about 1pm. I’ve only been in rural middle of nowhere for a week, so I was surprised how so many people in London was really difficult for me. People in a hurry, looking at their phones rather than ahead.
I arrived in Harpenden about 2pm where it was tipping down with rain. I dripped into the Methodist Church for a coffee and then sat in the sanctuary. A new journey lies ahead of me at the moment and it feels strange. I’ve often used High Street Harpenden’s fabulous worship space to say some quiet prayers before travelling on, so it was good to stop today.
I then walked on to Mother’s and the heavens opened! It’s a good job I left some towels in her airing cupboard. Then after about five hours of taxis and buses and trains and coffee and walking, the man took five minutes to fit the thing!! Now I am resting before seeing my friend Helen at teatime then driving home.
While travelling, I’ve been thinking about stories on the journey.
People early this morning were walking through the village to get a paper from our one shop, or taking the dog for a walk. What would their story be today?
People wanting to travel, reliant on others taking them somewhere, having somewhere they needed to be. What would their story be today?
People meeting friends in a church coffee shop, and others sitting quietly praying in a peaceful sanctuary. Some needing company, others communion with God in quietness. What would their story be today?
Meeting one of my closest friends later, even though we are both not free for long, we will share our stories.
Sitting in my Mum’s house which has now been sold subject to contract, I’m acutely aware of the story these walls have had, my upbringing. It will be strange to let this place go soon.
Every day, we travel and make a story, and we need blessing as that story happens. Every day, we open the door to continue our story and God joins us blessing us in it or giving us comfort in it when today’s chapter isn’t a happy one.
I am reflecting on these words preached by the fab Nadia Bolz Weber at her friend’s funeral last week:
“Jesus invites us into a story bigger than ourselves and our imaginations, yet we all get to tell that story with the scandalous particularity of this moment and this place. We are storytelling creatures because we are fashioned in the image of a storytelling God. May we never neglect that gift. May we never lose our love for telling the story.”
Our journey with its twists and turns and delays and roads we never expected to travel, our story of today and before today, is joined to the bigger journey and story of God in Christ. Our journey and our story is a faithful response to the journey of redemptive love and a story of inexhaustible hope. In our story we are charged to tell the story bigger than ourselves, and support people where they are today, in exasperated bus queues or with major pastoral need.
What’s my story today? Where’s my journey going? Surrounded by chaos, we woke up in a strange house this morning, our home until August next year. I find myself now officially stationed by the President of Conference without appointment to The Fens Circuit. The Circuit Meeting on Wednesday were told I’m now there. We are slowly meeting people and will enjoy listening to their story and trying to understand their journey, in some very tiny churches. I have struggled with this enforced change but am so grateful to those who are making it easier, and I’m beginning to go with it and find a peace in just seeing what happens.
Psalm 131 is one of the Psalms for evening prayer today: in the end no matter how hard the journey and how involved the story, we just trust I guess...
O Lord, my heart is not proud;
my eyes are not raised in haughty looks.
I do not occupy myself with great matters,
with things that are too high for me.
But I have quieted and stilled my soul,
like a weaned child on its mother’s breast;
so my soul is quieted within me.
O Israel, trust in the Lord,
from this time forth for evermore.
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