Last week, with my Circuit colleagues, we toddled off to the mother house of the Northumbria comunity.  It was a good day ‘alone together’.  Good times of silence, conversation, reflection and talk over food.  God really spoke to me.

We were invited to consider the season, autumn (as it is here in the Northern Hemisphere).  A time where the vegetation begins to fall away and things change nature, colour and shape.  We were then asked to consider what was changing/falling away in our own lives.  When I look into what I see the future containing, the way the Lord is leading, here is what I sense what is, firstly,  falling away, but for each falling away, what I sense that means in the positive:

Personally:
– freedom and liberty to choose = a welcome return to a disciplined life
– sense of entitlement to my own vision – = a welcome return to community and a vision bigger than my own
– losing unhealthy approaches and habits, comforts and dependancies = freedom!
– denial of true call and DNA = embracing identity
– the scripture that came to me was ‘He who loses his life will find it.’

In ‘ministry’:
– the thoughts of permanancy, settling long term = embracing the pilgrim life…releasing the ‘turasaiche’ within!
–  good opinions of men…and then the Lord blazoned this scripture to my mind “Woe to you when people say all sorts of good things about you for this is how their father’s treated the false prophets.”  – Lk 6:26

Another highlight was what we hoped our ‘spring’ would contain, what I wanted to see.  Here is what I wrote:

“Mission-focussed communities of the followers of Jesus, rooted in authentic experience of vibrant faith and spirituality.”

All that is enough to keep me engaged for a good while!  What about you?  What is God causing to fall away from your life and experience?  What are your hopes for spring?  More importantly, what does God want to do in your life in ‘winter’ inbetween?