patrick in the yahoo group posted tonight.

part of his post was a story about faith.

A father and his young son went mountain climbing. After spending an exhilarating day in the cool, fresh air, it began to grow dark. As father and son began to descend the mountain on their way home, the father, being swifter of foot, was soon lost from sight of the son. The young lad plodded on and soon reached a precipice. Being unnerved at the great height from where he stood and the chasm that glared up at him, a plaintive voice cried out: "Dad, where are you? I am afraid". The father's encouraging voice rang out, " I am standing just below you". The lad once more called out uncertainly, "How shall I come down from here? It is very dark and I cannot see you". The father once more called out reassuringly, "But I can see you. Just jump down and I will catch you in my arms".

saying the sad psalms.

with those who are sad.

sitting beside them.

not preaching to them. 

not saying anything to them in fact:

just sitting.

at moot an hour ago a part of a poem:

In time we are all travellers

Who voyage separate roads.

Very occasionally we come together

And share our baggaged loads.

perhaps we start from a place where we are separate travellers,

but our journey is steadily towards one another.

all roads lead to . . . . .

Tom Wright in a sermon in 2006 quotes some Paul:

For in him all the Fullness was glad to dwell

and through him to reconcile all to himself,

making peace through the blood of his cross,

through him - yes, things on the earth,

and also the things in the heavens.

and then says:

St Paul, in writing or quoting this astonishing and very early piece of poetic theology, is claiming for Jesus what the ancient Jewish wisdom writers claimed for the figure of Wisdom - the wisdom by which the world was made, the wisdom you need to be a fully alive human being, the wisdom by which the living God inhabits his world, breathes into it his own warm life, and brings about within it the fulfilment of his strange and beautiful purposes.

prayer so difficult today.

desolate and painful:

too much thrashing about perhaps?

certainly far too much drifting into daydream, but this is a perennial problem.

remember that things are not always what they may seem at the time.

about that chest with seven locks:

the morose gardener placed the chest in the boy's room but why?

surely because he himself needed the chest to be opened and he could not do it himself.

and yet when the chest was opened, terrible things happened;

or seemed to.

or perhaps it is simply the case that things change.

and many of them may seem terrible.

the main essential though is that the most important doors cannot be opened by ourselves.

we need others to open them.
and each door which is opened has become a stepping stone towards you.

another quote in the yahoo group from 'they speak in silences'.

When our heart is torn and continues to be so,
we must give it to Him as it is. 

it sounds so easy but, for me, it's the hardest thing of all. 

allowing things to be as they are.

allowing God to be as He is;

and he allows me to be as I am?

the quote continues:
What He wants is for us to give ourselves to
Him as we are. If there is anything to be put
right He will do that, because we shall have
handed ourselves over completely to Him.
(my underlinings)