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Eclipsing the Sun

We stepped out of our front door into a eerily early twilight, as the moon began to cover the sun. From where we stood, the eclipse reached 96% coverage, at its height. One of the things that impressed me most about the experience was not how dark it became, but how much light remained when only 4% of the sun was shining. Even that small sliver of crescent-sun lit the world up more brilliantly than a full moon. The moon might be the main attraction at night, but it can’t compete. I’ve seen it in the morning, almost imperceptible against the sun-washed sky, even though it was still shining just as brightly as ever. More technically, it was still reflecting just as brightly as ever. The reason the moon can never compete with the sun is because every bit of light it shines with is received from the sun in the first place. It does not generate any light of its own. It can only give out of what it has been given.

A Lesson from the Littlest

This is a guest post by Naomi Brehm, a storyteller and poet I met at a conference earlier this year. Naomi works as an evangelist with Speak Life while also studying for a Graduate Diploma in Theology. You can find her work on the Speak Life podcast

Sussex was serving up its best. Winding country roads in summer sunshine were made for Sunday afternoon cycles like this one. Whizzing past fields and farms, my peripheral vision kept being interrupted by flashes of grey-white. I’d never seen anything like it before. Cobwebs are often intricate and beautiful and delicate, these were not. Dense, Halloween-style nets had been cast over whole sections of hedgerows.

Initial reaction: “gross.”

Secondary thought: “Ah, I should do Seth’s Inductive Nature Study thing.”

Words Like Rain (a poem)

Your words came
like rain
and the parched ground
they found
was my heart

Your words fell
like seeds
in the cracked soil
of me
and they sprouted

Your words grew
like saplings
unfurled
like flowers
and tasted like
heaven’s own
garden-fresh
produce
and nothing at all
is the same
since

Your words came

“You have the words of eternal life” – John 6:68

How to Change Your Perspective on Time

I saw the sun rise over the beach recently. I’ve seen it rise countless times before, but it still surprised me. Not only was it larger and redder than I remembered—and more beautiful than I can describe—it was also moving faster than I expected. I could measure the speed of its rising against the buildings on the horizon, and I saw it launch itself above them into the sky in the span of mere minutes. Does the sun always move this fast? It must, but I don’t normally perceive its speed so clearly because I don’t normally have stationary objects to measure it against.

Life is like that, too. Time constantly moves us, steadily, relentlessly, without ever adjusting its stride or changing its course. We easily lose track of its movement among the busy challenges and joys of living, but sometimes—like the sunrise at the beach—we realise. Sometimes, we see time measured against hard, immovable facts like the growth of trees or children, the passing of birthdays, or the whitening of hair. Sometimes, it comes as a surprise—but time is not concerned about our consternation. It continues unabated, never slowing, never quickening, always moving forward. The movement of time is a simple fact. We cannot change it. The only thing we can change is how we view and react to it, and I’m convinced that our perspective on time has everything to do with hope.

Choose Your Drama

Choose your drama. There is no shortage. Every streaming service can supply a few thousand options for you, and if fiction isn’t your preference the news is a never-ending reality show (based on a true story) that nobody has the guts to cancel. Too dark? You can follow the stars, watching for which celebrities are rising, which are falling, and which are cheating. Or sports. Or soaps. Or our newest option: a steady stream of short, viral video clips that are always ready to provoke a reaction—whether good or bad or surprising or outrageous or intriguing or ridiculous or sweet or funny or comfortable or all of the above one after another for as long as you can keep your eyes open.

Choose your drama. They’re all vying for your attention, shouting, popping up, playing on your emotions, always accessible and ready to give you the satisfaction of feeling something—because there is a kind of satisfaction in feeling, even if the feeling is bad. And the handy thing about receiving our feelings prepackaged and streamed through the internet is that it’s easier to put them back in our pocket or change channels when we’ve had enough. The real world isn’t nearly as accommodating.

A Given (a poem)

I laid my head down
and took it for granted
that it was a given
that I would keep living
that morning would come
and my heart would keep beating
in counterpoint time to
the rhythm of breathing
and so it was granted—
my consciousness lost,
my body continued
to honour my trust
I rested on forces
I could not control
and now with the light
in my eyes,
I know
that waking up here
on this marvellous planet
is something I cannot
keep taking for granted
it’s granted, but my life
is never a given
and yet—here I am!
because
it is given

The Skill That Unlocks Other Skills

I would love to be a painter. Even a good sketcher. A decent doodler. I have plenty of appreciation for art that really captures a moment well—that invites you to share the wonder or the pain in a face, or the windswept endurance of a place—but I can’t do it myself. My pen on paper can create lines that are just about recognisable, but I know people who can translate the full magic of a moment into brushstrokes, and I’m in awe of that skill. I don’t understand how their fingers can move with such confident precision and grace. And yet, in another way, I do understand—this is the result of practice. I’ve seen enough to know how it works. The skills that appear the most effortless are the ones that come from hours and years and maybe decades of hidden effort.

Does the Day End in Night, or the Night End in Day?

Every winter gives way to summer. Every summer eventually fades to winter. Every day ends in night, and every night ends in day. These cycles have been circling for longer than anyone can remember, and they will continue long after our own lives are forgotten—but they cannot continue forever. Someday, the cycles must finish. And will they finish with an everlasting day, or a never-ending night?

Lifetime Lease (a poem)

zero money down on the lease of a lifetime no payments due
you can keep it and use it damage abuse it and love it so
tenderly until the terms of renewal are ended then turn
in the lifetime you’ve broken and mended and all of
the years that you’ve always pretended were
yours and yours only by rights and by
reason but this was a loan—it was
only a season and one day the
lease on the lifetime of you will
come due and you’ll find out
it’s always been true that
you can’t stop the
hourglass sands
as they sift
you can only
accept

the

gift

If God Meant Everybody, why did he say Neighbour?

In Leviticus 19:18, God commands his people to “love your neighbour as yourself”. Jesus called this the second greatest commandment, after loving God himself (Mark 12:28-31). When a religious leader asked him to clarify, “who is my neighbour?” Jesus used the parable of the Good Samaritan to illustrate that your “neighbour” could be anybody—even strangers, foreigners, and natural enemies.

This raises a question: if God meant for us to love everyone, why didn’t he say that in the first place? He could have commanded us to “love everyone as you love yourself”, which would seem clearer and more to the point. Doesn’t the word “neighbour” lend itself to definitions that are narrower than God intended? In fact, we have Biblical proof of just such a misunderstanding in Matthew 5:43, where Jesus refers to a saying that seems to have been popular at the time, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’” Jesus rejects this saying and turns it around, commanding us to “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven” (Matthew 4:44-45). That’s a good correction, but couldn’t the confusion have been avoided if God had simply said “everybody” in the first place?