“…walk with me and work with me - watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” - Jesus of Nazareth.
I am currently training to become a Spiritual Director. I have completed my first year and the second is due to begin soon. It has been a wonderful time of learning, awakening and journeying with a small group of students and teachers*. One of the requirements is to offer direction to two directees during this time, who know we are in a training period and are willing to journey with us. I regularly meet with a guy I know who I will call David for this article.
One element of the Christian journey, and indeed my own personal relationship with God, that I love to explore is our own connection to nature, wildness and beauty, and how I/we meet with God there. This is something I hope to explore further through the practice of spiritual direction. Thankfully David is somewhat of a kindred spirit who also loves nothing more than getting his boots on and heading out into the countryside or coastline armed with binoculars, a forager’s eye and a flask of warm tea. We conduct most of our sessions on the trail, immersed in colour and beauty, seeking to dwell in the liminal spaces, the overlap of the spiritual and physical. Could they even be one and the same?
During the last session we had, I asked David how he’s doing in general, but in particularly how he’s approaching the transition of the seasons as we move from summer into autumn. I’ll paraphrase his reply…
“Actually, I’m quite looking forward to it. There tends to be a lot of pressure in the summer months. We want the weather to be warm and sunny, expect it to be so and find ourselves disappointed when it isn’t; we feel we must be busy and make the most out of every moment, be overly sociable at BBQs and events; and we generally harbour the need to be on the move most of the time. In the autumn, nature seems to slow down a little; you can open your curtains and if its raining, oh well you got to expect it; if its sunny, then that’s lovely too; if there’s a wind howling you can ‘coorie-in’ and light the fire. Autumn comes with a sigh of relief and a release from all the frantic activity.”
I loved the essence of what he’s observing. Liminal spaces often hold clues to loftier spiritual ideas and realities. The pressures that David articulates about the character of the summer months is so often the space we find ourselves in in our churches, ministry contexts and/or simply day-to-day life. There’s so often a pressure to perform and achieve above and beyond expected outcomes. If things don’t go according to plan we wrestle with damaging concepts of self-doubt and ‘failure’. There is much to be done and we can’t settle until we’ve done it. There are lonely people to see, hurting people to help, and there are gaps to be filled in our programmes and rotas.
I wonder what might happen if we all took the essence of David’s autumn observation and applied it to our lives and work. Perhaps we would step into the invitation of Jesus that Peterson articulates in his paraphrase of Matthew 11 that I opened with. Perhaps the invitation is to learn to walk and work in rhythm with Jesus, watching how he does it, an unforced rhythm of grace, nothing heavy or ill-fitting, just free and light.
Now that sounds like relief.
Oh the sheer relief of Jesus himself. And the good news my friends, is that we get to have this man, this wild and free holy man who is both divine and real, spiritual and physical, heavenly and earthly, our home and sender, our guide and our comfort. He is our Beloved, and we are his!
And so, what’s the first invitation of the autumn season? You will find it in Mark 6 where he says, “Come away with me. Let us go alone to a quiet place and rest a while.”
Sit and dwell in those words of invitation for a while.
“Come away with me. Let us go alone to a quiet place and rest a while.”
What stirs in your soul? Perhaps it’s sweet relief, a tonic for the weary soul. Could this really be possible, the actual words of the Christ to me, right now? Maybe you can hear yourself putting up a bit of defiant obstruction, “but there is so much to do!” and there very well might be. But perhaps the load you bear is a little ill-fitting or too heavy, perhaps the Son of Man wants your heart rested and at peace, released from frantic activity, ‘should-do’s’ and ‘ought-to’s’, the pressure and the obligation.
Maybe he simply wants to show us all that this holy path truly is free and light after all.
Will you listen? Will you get up and go away with Jesus, somewhere quiet to rest and be alone with him? I don’t think you’ll regret it if you do.
Grace and peace to you, as you welcome the new season in.
Jon Timms
Director Scotland and Northern England
*If anyone is interested, I’m training with Sustainable Faith (www.sustainablefaith.co.uk)
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