Multi stage of life relating ...

I view myself as extremely privelged - I am close to people across various age ranges and stages of life, something which I'm soooo thankful for and appreciate the richness of daily. Soemone once called me "ageless" describing how I can relate naturally and as myself to people across the spectrum of life.

Yesterday a friend and I spoke about a situation where a single person very obviously stated that they wouldn't be bringing anything to a function. The friend is a mum of a 2 year old and was quite taken aback by the single person's statement. Now there's more in that situation (which explains stuff on both sides) but it got me thinking and led to me having a conversation last night with a close friend who is also a mum of a 3yr old and 1 yr old.

In the situation I mentioned the mum was commenting on "we're managing something and we have a kid" and I could easily imagine the single person thinking "it's just me, I'm just one extra". Last night my friend and I were talking about how hard it is for us to see outside of the situation in life that we are currently in. I also think that for most of us in the kind of circles I'm in whatever the stage of life we are so time poor that we often think it must be easier for someone else at a different life stage or life situation to do something. In reality, I think this is rarely true.

This also led onto another conversation I had during the week about a single person relating to families. Relating about this again last night, it struck us how often we resent things in each others lives because it means that we "get" less of what we want from the other person: might be a partner, might be kids, might be work, might be a hobby - but whatever it is it's not about the "thing" whatever it might be but rather about us not getting what we want and feel is rightfully ours.

How hard it is for us to really understand each others lives, to trully live ours fully, to accept and celebrate where we are and where others are and look for the creative opportunities and invitation for connection across them.

A Whinge about Whinges!

I find myself increasingly tired of peoples whinges about church. It's not that I don't care - i profoundly do. It's not that I think they are not legitimate, and often true - they often are. It's just that I really do reckon there are bigger things in life for us as God's people to be giving our attention to then whether others are talking to us! I'm just somewhat over how inwardly focused we as God's people are - when there is just so much need in the world, AND so much about God and each other for us to enjoy too!
So I guess that means that I'm over myself sometimes too - I'm not immune from the whinging about church bug :) But gosh I long for us as God's people to be deeply the people we are called to be.

Future of God Amongst the People of God

Great post by Paul Fromont about what it means for the future of God to be amongst the People of God and how we as congregations/communities shape our lives for transformation.
Excellent stuff.

Benedict continued

I'm really enjoying Joan Chittister's commentary on The Rule of Benedict.

Here's one of the gems:
"it is up to the monastic to let the practices of the community and the rhythm of prayer life work their way until the piercing good of God rises in them like yeast in bread"

Life

There are so many good things in life at the moment. And so many tiring things. And quite a number of things that suck energy. Had a few days away last week on retreat which was really centering and refreshing. Last weekend was our community weekend away - some really good things, some really average things. We are in the process of architects tendering for the initial stages of the redevelopment of our church building - so exciting. People are people - amazing potential both for good and bad, and this week I've seen and experienced both of those in others and in myself.