Interesting that I wrote this on Saturday, the day before New Zealand was hit by a number of earthquakes.
The birds they sang
At the break of day
‘Start again’
I heard them say
Don’t dwell on what
Has passed away
Or what is yet to be. . .
There is a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in.
Leonard Cohen
“…Thomas Merton was once passing a dayroom in his monastery when he spied an old monk looking very depressed. He opened the door, walked in, and asked, “Brother, are you all right?” The elderly monk said, “No, I’m not. I think I am losing my spirit, my positive attitude…maybe even my faith!” Rather than becoming alarmed, Merton simply leaned back from the emotional scene, gently put his hand on the man’s shoulder, smiled at him, and said, “Brother, courage comes and goes. Hold on for the next supply.”
Robert J Wicks
“We should never attempt to bear more than one kind of trouble at once. Some people bear three kinds – all they have had, all they have now, and all they expect to have.”
Edward Everett Hale
MY PRAYER today is for endurance. The endurance of our faith comes from understanding the temporariness of all things, including our courage and our trust. These things waver and falter in the most faithful of us, as circumstances and appearances dictate how we see things, and how we respond. Our faith might appear to be receding with the tide, but just as the tide turns, and the seasons change, our faith renews itself, as the coming of dawn. And over time God reminds us of his faithfulness, we see the patterns, and we remember not to fear the dark when it draws in.
Endurance is not never faltering, or falling to our knees. It’s the getting up again, the continuing that counts. The great poet Leonard Cohen reminded us that, ‘The birds they sing… start again’. Faith is a resource. We renew it from the source. Our task to keep close to the author and finisher of our faith.
These are drawn from daily prayers and reflections I write for my Chaplaincy colleagues.
Living Tree Poetry 