Vacare Deo – Learning to live in the unforced rhythms of grace

An In-between time

Growing up to be a child is all about Jesus’ challenge to become like children. This challenge was linked to a purpose: to enter and live in God’s kingdom here and now.

While I believe we can be part of God’s kingdom right now, it is also clear to me that this kingdom of heaven has not yet been fully established. We are living in an in-between time, in which we may see aspects of God’s kingdom but we certainly don’t see it in all its fullness. Children continue to get abused; people continue to use violence to promote their causes; the rich get richer at the expense of those who are poor, vulnerable, and exploited; people continue to get sick, suffer, and die; and our world remains troubled and damaged.

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Becoming

Becoming a child is a gift from God; it stems from God’s grace. The challenge for us is not to strive to obey all the rules, practice all the right disciplines, and so somehow convince God that we are really like children. Rather it is to respond to God’s invitation and accept God’s grace. In particular, it is to recognise that God loves us unconditionally, just as a father loves his child, and even more so.

Growing up to be a child, p149-150

In this contemplative companion I use four ‘disciplines’ of cleansing, feeding, resting, and dressing to encourage building a regular rhythm of life into our spirituality.

Click here to go to the contemplative companion to Chapter 11 of Growing up to be a child.

Satyagraha – A forgotten stream of true spirituality

Last week Lois and I watched the film Suffragette: an extremely powerful portrayal of one woman’s part in the non-violent struggle for women’s rights; and, interestingly, a pertinent exploration of the parallel processes of alienation and grooming that accompany any form of radicalisation. The main (fictional) character, Maud Watts (Carey Mulligan), gradually finds the courage to speak out and act against the violence, abuse and oppression that she and so many of her contemporaries were suffering in early 20^th century Britain.

Alongside the grim reality of gross injustice, and the moving, personal story of one family, what struck me most in all of this was the powerful testimony to the courage required of a non-violent struggle against oppression. While the suffragettes may have gone beyond non-violent resistence in some of their methods, the testimony of many of them stands strong. This is a testimony mirrored in the lives of people like Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Oscar Romero, Aung San Suu Kyi, Malala Yousafzai, or the unknown man who, on June 5^th, 1989, stood in front of a column of tanks in Tian an Men square.

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Inheritance and Idolatry

The common interpretation of the word ‘inheritance’ is ‘what you get from your parents when they die’. In reality, though, an inheritance is far more than the material possessions left to you by your parents. What a child inherits from her parents is richer, deeper, and more profound than a sum of money. Who you are and what you become is a product of your inheritance: both the genes that are passed on to you, setting your potential, and the environment that you grow up in – your parents’ attitudes and behaviour, your wider family, and your influences outside the family – all combine to mould you into what you finally become.

No matter how hard we may try not to, as parents we inevitably pass on some of our values to our children. If what we value is riches, a comfortable life with all we could need or wish for, that is what our children will inherit – along with the binding greed, the fear of loss, and the indifference to the needs of others that such idolatry brings with it. If what we value is achievement, status, and power, that is what our children will inherit – along with the low self-esteem, the constant striving to be good enough, the bullying, and the exploitation that come with that idolatry. If what we seek is pleasure and indulgence, an easy life, fun and action, and a wide circle of friends, we will pass that on to our children – along with the emptiness that so often sneaks in with this idolatry, the fear of pain, and the loneliness of absent love.

Growing up to be a child, chapter 10

In this latest contemplative guide to Growing up to be a Child, we reflect on what we have inherited from our parents, both good and bad, and what we in turn may be passing on to our children…

Click here to go to the latest contemplative guide to Chapter 10 of Growing up to be a Child.

Image: a contemplative companion to chapter 9 of Growing up to be a child

Children love to play. That is perhaps one of the most striking aspects of childhood. Interestingly, their play largely seems to revolve around a combination of creativity, exploration, and relationship. If you give a child a box of bricks or a crayon, she will create something with them. If you leave a group of children in a garden, it probably won’t be long before they start playing hide-and-seek. And if you watch children singing nursery rhymes, you will see beautiful examples of relationship – even in the very simple act of joining hands in a circle, dancing round and round, and all falling down.

In this contemplative guide we explore what it means to be made in the image of God… through play

Click here to go to the contemplative companion to chapter 9

Hanging up my stethoscope

Today, after 28 years of clinical medicine, I hung up my stethoscope, put away my box of bricks and toys, and closed my BNF for the last time.

Yes, I have finally done it. No more will I drive to Rugby on a Monday morning, to sit on the floor of my clinic room playing with little children, listening to their parents’ concerns, and trying to offer some advice or support. No more will I hold the hands of my beautiful patients at Brooke special school. I will miss them: Jimmy[1], Abi, Naheem… Each one, in their little ways, has blessed me. Little Carrie’s friendly smile; Joel’s mischievous streak; Yacob’s shyness…

It has been a privilege to work with these families over the years, and I have learnt such a lot: about children; about families; about the very real struggles and difficulties so many people face. I feel honoured to have, in some small way, shared in some of those struggles. And I hope that, for some at least, I have been able to offer some comfort, support and hope.

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Re-imagine

Are you willing to take a step of faith, and re-imagine how God wants to work in and through you?

Are you prepared to step out of your comfort zone?

Will you allow the poor to be your teacher?

How about joining a Servants internship in a slum community in Northern India next summer?

Click here to find out more

Soul: a contemplative companion to chapter 8 of Growing up to be a child

In chapter eight of Growing up to be a child, I explore this deepest aspect of our humanity as a growing awareness of ourselves, of other people, of the world we live in, and of God. In each of these areas, I suggest that the call to ‘become like a little child’ is a call to a redeemed awareness:

Of ourselves as beloved children;
Of our relationship to others;
Of the wonder and beauty of the world in which we live;
And of our heavenly father as a God who loves each one of us unconditionally

In the contemplative companion, we use music and scripture to help still ourselves and encounter the beauty and mystery of our Creator.

Click here to go to the contemplative companion to chapter 8.

A Raja of the Road

Balvinder Singh, son of Punjab Singh, Prince of Taxi Drivers, may your moustache never grow grey! Nor your liver cave in with cirrhosis. Nor your precious Hindustan Ambassador ever again crumple in a collision – like the one we had with the van carrying Mongo Frooty Drink.

Although during my first year in Delhi I remember thinking that the traffic had seemed both anarchic and alarming, by my second visit I had come to realize that it was in fact governed by very strict rules. Right of way belongs to the driver of the largest vehicles. Buses give way to heavy trucks, Ambassadors give way to buses, and bicyclists give way to everything except pedestrians. On the road, as in many other aspects of Indian life, Might is Right.

Yet Mr Balvinder Singh is an individualist who believes in the importance of asserting himself. While circumstances may force him to defer to buses and lorries, he has never seen the necessity of giving way to the tinny new Maruti vans which, though taller than his Ambassador, are not so heavily built. After all, Mr Singh is a Kshatriya by caste, a warrior, and like his ancestors he is keen to show that he is afraid of nothing. He disdains such cowardly acts as looking in wing mirrors or using his indicators. His Ambassador is his chariot, his klaxon his sword. Weaving into the oncoming traffic, playing ‘chicken’ with the other taxis, Balvinder Singh is a Raja of the Road.

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