Welcome to my garden prayer space, featuring pink roses at peak display. Poised delicately above my wooden seat, they frame the area beautifully: roofed with roses! How fabulous. The idea is simple: here is a private quiet area which gives a discreet outlook on the birds and squirrels, with trees shielding some of the rush-hour traffic noise.
Seated here with a Bible, good coffee and good intentions, the world is a fine place and I have the opportunity to reflect on God, myself and the world.
I started using this space last week, and after two good mornings and one gentle evening, I was congratulating myself. Then the weather changed. We’ve had hail, thunder & lightning, torrential downpours that would float an Ark; and half the roses have had their petals battered into submission. The seat looks like it has been confetti-plagued, and I’m sure I saw a squirrel with an umbrella…
Amount of praying done here this week? None, at least none in this place of good intentions.
How typical. As soon as I’m organised, the monsoon arrives- and the best laid plans change. In the grand scheme of history and destiny, this is just an inconvenience. Having good intentions is great, as long as I remember I don’t run the universe. (I’m in sales, not management.) I have to be willing to adapt.
IF such an inconvenience uproots my entire spirituality and prevents me praying, perhaps I’m only worshipping my garden seat or the roses?
As one preacher said “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.”
Distractions, disappointments and frustrated good intentions are (sadly) part of life. Resilience is required, along with those other unpopular things like self-discipline, perseverance, patience… if God is as important in my life as I claim, neither good intentions nor bad weather will stop my desire to know God and His Ways.
One of the most haunting passages in the New Testament was written to the church in Ephesus. In many ways this was an admirable gathering of Christian disciples: but they had lost sight of the centrality of Love and were at risk of living empty good intentions. Jesus warns them compellingly: and offers encouragement for their success.
Revelation 2:4-5 (New Living Translation)
“But I have this complaint against you. You don’t love me or each other as you did at first! Look how far you have fallen! Turn back to me and do the works you did at first. If you don’t repent, I will come and remove your lampstand from its place among the churches.”
“Keep the main thing the main thing.”
“‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind’. This is the first and great commandment. And there is a second like it: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself’. The whole of the Law and the Prophets depends on these two commandments.” (Matthew’s Gospel, J.B. Phillips translation)
The Reflectionary 