Thought for the week: David L Saunders has a ‘be’ in his bonnet
‘Love does break through at unexpected times, in unexpected places, and from unexpected people.’
Walking down Charing Cross Road to a meeting, my attention was grabbed by a wayside pulpit outside a steeplehouse. It had these four words: ‘Do less, be more.’ Such posters, normally of the ‘wages of sin is death’ variety, do not speak to me, but this one was different. It did speak, and challenged me. My mind went to: ‘Be still and know that I am God’, ‘O rest in the Lord, wait patiently for him’. Yes, it is a matter of finding the right balance between being and doing.
On another occasion I was queuing at a supermarket checkout and when the customer in front of me had put away her purse the checkout operator looked up and said: ‘How’s your mother?’ Being in a hurry I groaned inwardly at the prospect of a long exchange but on second thoughts I realised that in this secular place grace, kindness and God were suddenly present. Inwardly ashamed of my initial reaction I said a silent prayer of thanksgiving for this act of compassion.
Perhaps it’s the creative artists who can best make the connection between the eternal and the everyday. Stanley Spencer’s painting of Christ preaching at Cookham has it. Francis Thompson, in his poem ‘In No Strange Land’, has a vision of Jacob’s ladder ‘pitched betwixt Heaven and Charing Cross’ and ‘Christ walking on the water, not of Genesareth but Thames’.
Love does break through at unexpected times, in unexpected places, and from unexpected people. Watching our six-year-old grandson at his Sunday morning rugby lesson I was struck by the way the big, burly rugby team coaches, whenever a youngster who had been in a collision was on the verge of tears, would go over, kneel down with them and provide comfort.
Visiting London, and being a senior with a head of white hair, I am struck by the regular offers to help carry a heavy suitcase up stairs or the escalator, or invitations to go to the front of the bus queue, or seats offered on the Tube. One of the free newspapers has a section where people report acts of kindness. Such acts remind us that God is not far away, and is present in the actions of those around us – but only if we have the eyes to see.
It is so tempting to feel that, given the state of the world and our own country, the sheer amount of wrong and injustice requires us to do something. Consciously taking time out to ‘be’ can feel like an act of self-indulgence. But let’s remember that Jesus, who was himself pretty good at ‘doing’, also regularly took time out to ‘be’ with God. That particular wayside pulpit offered a welcome challenge.
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