There is a river.
It runs by the side of a medieval monastic ruin.
It flows fast, silvery and relentlessly through wooded land that glows green-gold in all weathers.
The banks of the river have been a thin place for me. While I've been living in the North East of England, I've spent hours here.
Today.
Dawn and I stood on an old wooden bridge and stared fixedly on the fast flow of the water. We took in the breathtaking scene, somehow enhanced by the ruins of the monastery in the background.
But.
The most powerful thing was the quiet.
It would have been total silence had the river been still. But the clinking sounds of the water flow added to the peace.
It was a moment.
A moment of peace. A moment of peace in a far from peaceful time of our lives.
We breathed it in.
It helped us to think and to listen to God.
I couldn't hear his voice.
So.
He showed me some stuff.
We have some big decisions to make. Massive ones in fact. We have experienced some storms in our life but not many like this one were in right now.
Talking about storms, my eye caught a glimpse of something that kind of spoiled the scene around the river. There was lots of litter strewn across the low lying bracken and bushes that flanked both edges of the water. The litter and debris stretched for as far as the eye could see. I spotted an old shopping trolley, mangled and rusty, an old red blanket stained with green gunk of some kind. Old shards of broken brick and pottery made for a thick carpet on the flatter sides of the river.
Then I remembered.
We've had some serious storms over the last few months. This river had flooded on numerous occasions. I could see where the water levels had risen above the banks. As they had receded it left debris everywhere washed down from who knows where.
I took in the scene.
Beautiful.
But.
The storm had left its debris.
But now the scene was calm. The river was flowing normally.
Quiet.
Total peace.
I had a sense of the fact that storms don't last forever.
They do come.
O yeah.
They come and you can't control them.
But you can wait them out.
I'm in the eye of a storm just now.
And I can't see its end just yet.
But looking at this river tonight the green banks turning red gold in the dusk. The clear water moving gracefully forwards. The peace, the quiet, the silence. I know for sure this storm will be over someday soon. It may leave a bit of debris in my life. But that can be cleaned up.
We were glad of this peaceful moment today.
God reminded me of this.
Storms can't last forever.
Today whatever the storm?
It will end.
It runs by the side of a medieval monastic ruin.
It flows fast, silvery and relentlessly through wooded land that glows green-gold in all weathers.
The banks of the river have been a thin place for me. While I've been living in the North East of England, I've spent hours here.
Today.
Dawn and I stood on an old wooden bridge and stared fixedly on the fast flow of the water. We took in the breathtaking scene, somehow enhanced by the ruins of the monastery in the background.
But.
The most powerful thing was the quiet.
It would have been total silence had the river been still. But the clinking sounds of the water flow added to the peace.
It was a moment.
A moment of peace. A moment of peace in a far from peaceful time of our lives.
We breathed it in.
It helped us to think and to listen to God.
I couldn't hear his voice.
So.
He showed me some stuff.
We have some big decisions to make. Massive ones in fact. We have experienced some storms in our life but not many like this one were in right now.
Talking about storms, my eye caught a glimpse of something that kind of spoiled the scene around the river. There was lots of litter strewn across the low lying bracken and bushes that flanked both edges of the water. The litter and debris stretched for as far as the eye could see. I spotted an old shopping trolley, mangled and rusty, an old red blanket stained with green gunk of some kind. Old shards of broken brick and pottery made for a thick carpet on the flatter sides of the river.
Then I remembered.
We've had some serious storms over the last few months. This river had flooded on numerous occasions. I could see where the water levels had risen above the banks. As they had receded it left debris everywhere washed down from who knows where.
I took in the scene.
Beautiful.
But.
The storm had left its debris.
But now the scene was calm. The river was flowing normally.
Quiet.
Total peace.
I had a sense of the fact that storms don't last forever.
They do come.
O yeah.
They come and you can't control them.
But you can wait them out.
I'm in the eye of a storm just now.
And I can't see its end just yet.
But looking at this river tonight the green banks turning red gold in the dusk. The clear water moving gracefully forwards. The peace, the quiet, the silence. I know for sure this storm will be over someday soon. It may leave a bit of debris in my life. But that can be cleaned up.
We were glad of this peaceful moment today.
God reminded me of this.
Storms can't last forever.
Today whatever the storm?
It will end.
