PERSONAL

When you’re finding it difficult to look forward with hope, and times seem dark, try looking back. Not in anger, but with a deliberate aim to discern the good things. For most of us this can work on a personal level (though some who suffer from severe depression or traumatic memories may struggle to do this).

We can start by looking for good things in our own experience and giving thanks for them to God. I’m sure it’s possible to be thankful for people and experiences without believing in God, but I want to speak from my experience and out of the big picture which is the canvas on which I think our lives are being painted.

Many of our good experiences will come with a sense of loss also. As in remembering people we love who have died, or situations that made us happy and we grieve that we have had to leave them behind and move on. Or times and relationships that were simply a mixture of good and bad and you can’t have one without the other. So, on this occasion at least, we’ll make a conscious choice to celebrate the good stuff. And, hopefully, much of it will still be part of our lives today and so we are already beginning to be thankful for the things that are good today. And we allow significant time to reflect on those positives, counting our blessings, mixed though they may be. And thanking God for them.

So often I meet older people who are sustained by memories. Remembering, and recalling past times, are not just ‘living in the past’ but help us find a way of living in the present. Just as we can dwell in, and feed on, bitter memories, with obvious negative effects, so we may nurture our spirits by replaying ‘happy thoughts’ and so find contentment, be less self-centred, less ‘needy’ and more open to love our neighbour.

I think we often learn from remembering. Perhaps we see what we didn’t before. As in any story being re-told or re-read, we may see new angles.

The meaning of life is not only determined by ‘going out and doing’ but just as much by ‘being’. St Paul wrote from prison that he had learned to be content whatever his circumstances (Philippians 4: 11-13) and that is surely the aim for us all.

LOOKING WIDER

Obviously, we do not live in a bubble, and we find ourselves in multiple relationships with the world around us: people near and far and the whole of creation. For people like me, who live in relative affluence and security, looking beyond ourselves can be a guilt-inducing task. To be honest, there may well be a place for guilt, and thus for seeking forgiveness and restitution, but that’s not where I want us to go now.

I hope we can follow the same process as for our ‘personal’ life. To spend some time looking back for the things that have given hope and encouragement to people in our communities, in our nation and across the world. And to give thanks for them. And to recognise those things that are still making a positive difference today, including when the picture is more mixed and promising beginnings have not been (fully) realised. We can go back as far as we like, and (inevitably!) be as selective as we like.

HOPE FOR TODAY

The main purpose of all this is really very simple – to give us hope for today and for the future. Realistic hope that doesn’t dodge the hard questions of why bad things happen, but which refuses to allow them to shut out the light that threads its way through everything and especially through the darkness. And allows us to believe in, to trust and even to celebrate the God who takes responsibility for the big picture, mysteriously shaping history and his (I could also say ‘her’) creation towards the fulfilment of his good purposes – the coming of his kingdom in all its fulness.

The thrust of this blog is to ‘discern the work of the Spirit in the midst of chaos’. What I have already suggested aims to do just that, but I want to focus on looking forward using what we learn from looking back. We know that things which are happening today will change the future. Some may already be bearing fruit, seen or unseen, others are still at too early a stage. And new ideas, new actions, new movements, are springing up all the time. And we can get involved. We might even start one.

A good starting point for our own involvement is to ask: what am I most concerned about? What have I to offer from my resources of time, talents and money? Remember that it’s a great mistake to do nothing because you can only do a little! Like Jesus in the feeding of the 5,000, we offer to him what we have, and the result is down to him. Many situations are daunting, but we mustn’t belittle our own small contribution.

History teaches us that all great positive movements of the past had small beginnings: mass movements for resistance and independence, for equality and justice, national and international health services, access to education, the welfare state and pensions for all, innumerable organisations and charities both small and large and so on. So when something starts, only God knows what it will grow to become. And when we offer ourselves to God, only he knows what we will become  (and there are no guarantees it will be easy!).

Thus, ultimately, and intimately, the wider task and our own contribution, are in good hands – God’s! But his thoughts are not our thoughts, neither are our ways his ways (Isaiah chapter 55). So, like children, we have to trust where we do not understand. And that’s a lot of trust needed! The deeper we go in knowing God, the more we will trust him and his good purposes, for us and the whole of creation.

One final vital thought. The Church has a crucial and unique part to play, but all people are God’s people, made in his image and God is at work in and through us all. As the prayer from Evening Prayer recognises:

O God, from whom all holy desires, all good counsels,

and all just works do proceed: …

The good work and the good people I see around, from every walk of life, give me hope, and I discern the work of God’s Spirit in them. All of us imperfect people expressing love, making sacrifices and listening to an inner voice which sends us out to make the world a better place.