Have you ever looked into an utterly still, serene pond without a ripple on the surface? What struck you? I did this once when on a walking party up Cader Idris in Wales. What struck me was not my face but the immense expanse of the sky which filled the pond surface. And then some bright spark in the group threw a huge rock in the lake and the ripples roared into life and the moment of enormity was lost. The stillness was replaced by movement.
We’ve had a strangely still 18 months globally and locally. It has tested endurance to the limit. Now huge boulders of uncertain change are sweeping in and even as I write this in August I do not know if its message will be relevant or timely in September.
There are several stages to disaster response. Three of the more well known are rescue (immediate aftermath), recovery (the next couple of years) and then… it depends what happens next. In some situations there is a third stage. It can be reconstruction- back to the old ways – or a good and permanent change – restoration and renewal.
The problem with back to the old ways is that they don’t create resilience for the future. Recovery that leads to reconstruction what went before means losing the best of new relationships, closer community and changed pace of life. It loses the 18 months of stillness and reflection that has led many people to consider deep things. It is like the ripples have roared back into life and now we move on. We do need to have movement and alongside this it would also be great to keep the best of the deepest thing we’ve been considering in our souls. The choice is ours.
As a church and local community we have innovated and experimented. The rescue phase appears to be over. I hope and pray that we are less eager to leap into reconstruction of former things and instead to wade into renewal.
Renewal is a deeply spiritual word. A 19th Century preacher once said "If you are renewed… and were to meet your old self, I am sure you would be very anxious to get out of his [sic] company." (Rev Charles Spurgeon).
As we look to the future my hope and prayer under God is that we’ll find that the good Lord has brought us to a softer, humbler, contrite and generous place. Throughout September we’re gathering as a church each Sunday to be a community that seeks renewal and to remember that while we seem to be recovering in the UK there are many elsewhere in the World who have yet to benefit as much as we have. You are welcome to join us in person or online. In the meantime, the beauty of water whether it is still, rippled or flowing, is that it represents good life and the Bible of course has these very famous lines in it about the stillness and beauty of water:
“The Lord is my shepherd, shall not want; he makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. ”