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Everyday Discipleship


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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