Keeping it real

Beth Buckley, our Development coordinator reflects on seeing God in real conversations...

I often say in my job, I never know what conversations I will end up having on a day to day

basis with guests or volunteers. Sometimes funny, sometimes odd, sometimes challenging, sometimes poignant, sometimes beautiful.  Recently I found myself having a really lovely chat with a volunteer about what it means for people to feel safe, share the realities of what they are going through and how we respond to that.  How sometimes asking are you ok, and really meaning it, really wanting the answer, is exactly what people want to hear.  That the very act of admitting when things aren’t fine over a bacon sandwich or a cup of tea to a listening ear can be the first step in beginning to heal.  That guests expressing they feel safe and being able to share the hope of their own story is why they do what they do.  In the midst of what had been a slightly manic day, it was a beautiful moment and a reminder about what is at the heart of what we do - and what is at the heart of the gospel.

For me, I find so much of God in those conversations.  In vulnerability, compassion and honesty, I can’t help but be so aware that the person sat with you is made in the image of a loving God who felt and experienced the full spectrum of emotion without any shame.  That God is just as beautifully present in every moment of unexpected and honest connection as it any service or sung worship.  That the very connection itself, is something holy, divine, something that has a wider significance than just ourselves.  Not in providing any answers, but in listening, and safety and truth. 

I was at a church event a few months ago and we said a benediction together that I think summarises this so beautifully. I now have it up on my fridge as I love the reminder it gives.  It uses 'we' regularly, and as you pray this, let that 'we' to not be just those reading this blog, but the hundreds of people we come into contact with - here at Hope and in our own personal lives too:

I pray for the courage to admit when we aren’t fine.  And that when we say those words aloud that we may be met with love and care.

I pray that we would remain open to participating in our own healing, even if it comes to us in ways that we fear at first. Just because it is new to us, it doesn’t mean God isn’t already waiting for us there; in the therapists room, on the page, in the conversation, in the solitude. 

May we welcome the love of God to our most tender places.

May we keep our feet on the ground God created and remember how it feels to worship outside the walls.

May we discern the difference between self-care and self-comfort; may we use them wisely.  And as much as we are able, may we choose life.

I pray that we would experience the Holy Spirit, in ways that surprise us.  That we would become acquainted with the wind and the wave, the eagle and the heron, our strength and our weakness. 

I pray that we would be right at home, right where we are, in these particular bodies.  

I pray that we would experience the weirdness of the divine in ways that leave us disorientated. 

I pray that we be caught joyfully of guard when God meets us outside of the box we have constructed and yet remains in the places we have vacated.

I pray that we would live in the truth of God’s mighty, all encompassing love that holds our answered prayers and unanswered longing, our healing and our brokenness, our grief and out joy, our ordinary miracles and all of those reasonable things.

Amen

(Benediction credit to Church Reimagined)