Sunday, 24 September 2023

Bruised and Broken (but Honest and Hopeful!)

 




‘One thing you can’t hide, is when you’re crippled inside’

John Lennon ‘Crippled Inside’ on the ‘Imagine' album (1971)

 

Not that I actually feel ‘crippled inside’. Not really.

But, I am aware of the bruises and brokenness we all bear. I have never shied away from acknowledging that in myself, nor in being open about it.

It is only as I have grown older that I have increasingly realised that the ‘normal’ thing seems to be to live in denial, to pretend that all is well, to ignore the ‘broken bits’ and certainly never to admit to them!

Whoops! I have got all that spectacularly wrong then. Or not!

In fact, I really do not believe that denial and pretence are healthy. Quite the opposite. So, I am not at all sorry to have been so aware of my inner failings, nor to have been open about them (as and when appropriate).

A conversation a few days ago with a family member, confirmed to me that openness can be a very positive thing, not just for the one sharing, but for the other who listens.

And a much valued chat with a friend the other day, in which we were open about some of our struggles etc, was so helpful for me (and, I think and hope, for him too) that I was once again reminded of the power of honesty and openness.

Don’t get me wrong. I think that there can be inappropriate ‘sharing’ and I do not think for one moment that we should be profligate in our exposing of our weaknesses to others. But in the right place, with the right person, at the right time, and when it is both safe and appropriate, then sharing in this way can be so beneficial and therapeutic.

I think I always believed that; it is only more recently that I realised that this is not ‘normal’!

I am so glad to know that some of my friends and some of my family members find that it has been such a positive experience for them too.

And, truth be told, I cannot quite divorce this from my understanding of what Christian fellowship can mean, or from the words of Jesus who said ‘you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free’. What if that means more than the truth about God, but also means the truth about ourselves? And what if we cannot really know the truth about ourselves until we share it?

That has certainly been my experience.

I have never found the reaction of the ostrich a very helpful guide to healthy living!


Thursday, 7 September 2023

The State of the World

 



‘Confusion will be my epitaph,

as I crawl a cracked and broken path;

if we make it, we can all sit back and laugh,

but I fear tomorrow I’ll be crying…’

[From ‘Epitaph’ by King Crimson on their 1969 album ‘In the Court of the Crimson King’]

  

Back in the day, songs such as the King Crimson one I have just quoted, were rather sneeringly dismissed as ‘Doom Rock’! Well, I can now see why. As well as being somewhat portentous, it is also more than a little pretentious!

But it reflected the mood of the time, when the Vietnam War was still raging, tensions and violence dominated the Middle East (and especially in Israel-Palestine) and when we lived with the constant threat of nuclear annihilation.

But much of that changed… and yet now seems to have returned.

I am old enough to remember what it felt like to live in the 60s, 70s and 80s, and the relief and hope that followed these tense decades, once the Vietnam War ended, the Middle East situation settled into an (albeit uneasy and unjust) co-existence, the Berlin Wall fell, the Soviet Union disintegrated, Nelson Mandela was released, a new South Africa emerged, and the nuclear threat seemed to recede.

And now, it feels very much more like it was back in the 60s, 70s and 80s with regard to he present geo-political situation. But perhaps it is even worse in some respects. We have even deeper political and cultural divisions in our Western nations than I seem to recall from 50 or so years ago. And, more alarmingly still, we are now facing the crisis of climate change and global warming.

And all of this simply by way of observation. It does very much concern me. But I can come up with neither easy answers nor short-term prophecies.

My faith assures me of ultimate hope, and I continue in that hope as I also pray. But while that may assure me of a final destination, and that there is One who will – in the end – bring about a ‘new heaven and a new earth’ (however we understand that), it does not describe the immediate path ahead as we travel onwards, nor of how things will go in this world in the years to come.

I am reminded of the words of Jesus ‘ You will hear of wars and rumours of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.  Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.  All these are the beginning of birth pains.’ (Matthew 24: 6-8)