After so many months of lockdown, I don’t think I’ve ever appreciated a holiday quite as much as the 10 days we’ve just enjoyed as a family. It was a precious gift to visit elderly parents in Pembrokeshire for the first time this year – and to swim in the beautifully warm Cleddau estuary! And I realised how much I needed the rest. Just before going away, I failed to show up for a meeting that I’d organised, sent a blank card to a colleague (having put the wrong card into the envelope), and made a regrettable mistake with an email.Such mistakes helped me extend compassion towards the restaurant where we enjoyed some family time last week. After a long wait to be served, the staff got the orders completely mixed up and we ended up, after a very staggered meal, with starters being served after the main course. The poor manager explained that, whilst they appreciated the government’s help through the ‘eat out to help out’ scheme, they weren’t prepared for the volume of custom and that they were under-staffed, over-tired and struggling to cope with such a very different regime.So many people I’ve chatted to in the last few months have spoken about tiredness. It’s made me reflect upon Jesus’ words in Matthew 11:28: ‘Come unto me, all you that are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest’. This verse surmounted the east window in the church where I was last vicar and faced me every time I entered the building. I remember thinking that God must have divinely ordered it to be there just for my benefit – 130 years after the church was built – for I know in that season of leadership, I needed to hear it on a daily basis.Later this week, we celebrate the feast of St Augustine of Hippo – one of the greatest theologians of the early church. This verse was a particularly important one for Augustine. He wrote ‘I have read in Plato and Cicero things that are wise and very beautiful; but I have never read in either of them: Come to me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest’. It inspired one of his best known and loved prayers which has echoed down through the centuries: ‘Almighty God, you have made us for yourself and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in you’.I wonder whether this verse is a particularly appropriate one for this season? I’m grateful that the staff of Church House Guildford currently begin every week by hearing these words. They’re a helpful reminder that, whilst breaks and holidays are essential for all of us, the ultimate rest is not a place or a period of time off, but a person - Jesus. I do hope that you’ve managed to have some time off over the summer months. But I also pray that as we look forward to a busy September and Autumn, we will constantly seek rest in the one whose yoke is easy and whose burden is light.Archdeacon Paul
Martin Luther might have written it off as an ‘epistle of straw’, but I’ve always been a bit of a fan of the letter of James. It’s not full of the deepest theology, it’s true – but for good, honest, practical lessons in Christian living, it’s hard to beat. I’m particularly struck by James’ challenge to our tendency to assume that we’re in control of our lives and our futures. ‘Come now’, he writes, ‘You who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there, doing business and making money”. Yet you do not even know what tomorrow will bring’. Instead, he writes, ‘you ought to say, “If the Lord wishes, we will live and do this and that’… (4:13-15) And having initially booked a period of study leave in the Autumn, which has been cancelled; and then a trip to Boston, which has been cancelled; and then a holiday to the Pyrenees, which has been cancelled; James’ words are nothing if not apposite! Of course, the uncertainty of which James speaks can be infinitely more serious than the odd cancelled holiday: and many in these past months have faced the profoundest of upheavals, threatening future plans, livelihoods, relationships, mental health and even the gift of life itself. And in such a context James would point us towards two possible responses: either to live by fear (shoring up whatever securities we can find in a desperate attempt to wrest back some semblance of control from the uncertainties that surround us); or else to live by faith (placing ourselves and our futures in the hands of the Living God). Living by faith in such a context is certainly not the easy option: God’s ways are not our ways, and Christian people are not immune from the sufferings of those around us. But there is extraordinary comfort in knowing that whatever challenges life throws our way, ‘Underneath are the everlasting arms’. ‘For you are my hope, O Lord God’, as we read in yesterday’s Morning Prayer, ‘My confidence, even from my youth’ (Psalm 71:5). And before you ask, the current plan is to travel to the Isle of Skye in mid-September, provided that Scotland hasn’t closed its borders by then… Every blessing, +Andrew.
We've become accustomed to sportsmen, and some women, displaying multiple tattoos.Perhaps it was former England captain David Beckham who led the vanguard of heavily inked footballers using tattoos as a fashion item and repeatedly adding to their body art.Chelsea and France star Olivier Giroud carries a tattoo that reflects his Christian faith. On the inside of his right arm are the Latin words: "Dominus legit me et nihil mihi demerit". That is the first line of Psalm 23: "The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want."Giroud, who plays for Chelsea after a spell with Arsenal, is a regular worshipper at St Barnabas Church, Kensington. He explained: "I grew up with my mother bringing me every single Sunday to church. After, I just carried on and now I'm seeing a priest studying the Bible together and I feel I want to know more about Jesus Christ's life."Every time I read the Holy Bible it makes me feel grateful about everything that has happened to me."Giroud, who will be 34 next month, was a member of the France World Cup-winning team in 2018. He won the FA Cup three times with Arsenal as well as once with Chelsea. He also won the Europa League with Chelsea in 2019.
