Reading again the story of Joshua and the walls of Jericho in preparation for our current Bible Study on "Whole Life Worship" and I am struck again by the difficulty, and importance, of connecting such stories with the everyday experience of people... and indeed myself. Years ago a friend wrote a poem that said "Oh to be in shining armour at the photocopier..." More that a quarter of a century later those words still resonate with me...
Ask me clearly
To do the impossible
And I will happily attempt it.
Separate waters
With a walking stick
To escape pursuing foes.
Blow my trumpet
To demolish the impregnable
Despite mocking from the ramparts.
Face a fearsome giant
With a few pebbles, faith
And not so youthful arrogance.
Sit amongst lions
Rather than desert you,
Anticipating our enemies’ demise.
Let me be a hero
Striding across scripture
Your words in my ears and mouth.
Yes Lord, please
Deliver me, not from evil
But the undifferentiated mundane;
The daily demands
That require faithfulness
But little mountain-moving Faith;
The everyday echoing silence
Devoid of audible affirming voice,
External or internal, human or divine;
The constant critique,
Deserved and less deserved,
Voiced, and more corrosive, unvoiced.
I ask not for an encounter on
The Damascus, or the Lisburn, Road
Or an inexplicably burning rhododendron
But a renewal, a reminder
That you are with me
Even in the email.
Selah
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