I have just come back from a really hectic 3 day trip to Canberra. I left at 9 pm on Sunday, drove the truck to just over the border, slept for 5 hours, drove to Canberra, set up 2 shows, packed down 1, slept for about 8 hours, worked on the second show, packed it down, drove back to Melbourne & I was in my bed by 3 am this morning. (Wednesday.)

A funny thing happened when I got home. After the mad rush & the almost constant movement of the last 3 days, I stood in my very quiet lounge room at 3 am, & was almost overwhelmed by the stillness & the silence. I drank it down as if I was a thirsty man who had crawled through the desert to this oasis. I crawled into bed & couldn’t sleep just reflecting on the peace that was overtaking me. My wife lay next to me asleep, her even breathing quite a comfort. In the next room, my youngest son was stirring just a little; I could hear my dog moving around in the back yard. As I lay there, a few thoughts ran through my mind; the first one being that this house was a sacred space. The second thought was “how blessed am I?”. We have been watching & reading quite a bit of material relating to global poverty & aids orphans & every time I meditate on this topic I hear the words “there but for the grace of God go you or I”. The third thought was something of an insight or revelation into what church is. I think that when people come to church they are largely looking to just be able to stop, step into some sacred space, & equip themselves to step out again. I enjoy traditional worship music, I enjoy contemporary worship, (loud or quiet) I enjoy gathering with my chosen community of believers, I enjoy hearing inspiring sermons or testimonies, but most of all, I just want some room to stop, to take a breath & to contemplate the divine.

Tomorrow I head off again for a 5 day job catering for the crew at the Wangaratta Jazz festival. More “busy”ness, more stress, more deadlines & just plain hard work, but in my bags I will pack an unprinted reminder, and that is that each morning I will rise, say my “Moses” prayer (Here am I Lord) remembering that I am blessed beyond what I ever deserve, & remembering that I need to stop at the oasis & drink a bit.

Your thoughts?

MM

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 31st, 2007 at 12:58 pm and is filed under The Wisdom Of The Scot. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.