I am afraid I cannot help overhearing conversations sometimes. Recently, two people were discussing an event that they described as awful. Later, I heard the same word used in connection with something else. The same word could only be used in both contexts if the scale was defined. Without definition, either one situation was played down or the other was exaggerated.
A definition of awful is ‘something that is extremely bad or unpleasant’. This picture of devastation in our house was unpleasant but it was planned so cannot really be called awful. A drizzly day is not very nice if you have to be outside but not awful. On the other hand, what is awful? To live in dust may be extremely bad or unpleasant and so might getting sodden in a drizzle that lasts for hours.
Thinking about this made be reflect on why it is unwise to pick up on fragments of conversation but why too one should give context. The dust in our house was awful if that can be defined as a state wherein dust pervades the food, the bathroom and bedroom and even clean clothes feel dirty. Drizzle that makes your walking boots wet on the inside or soaks right through all protective layers is, to me, awful.
Set alongside the misery of refugees crossing the English Channel at risk to their life, I have never experienced anything awful in my life.
In our Christian life we have individual experiences of God that differ greatly, but which are appropriate to our circumstances. They cannot be rated against those of other people and without definition and context, they make little sense. As we make our way into Advent this year, as we begin to prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus, in our preparation, let us make sure we define properly what faith means to us and therefore the scale of the preparations needed to make way for Jesus to be refreshed in our lives.
A prayer
God of the individual, you understand each of us and know the hills and valleys we must overcome in order to prepare for you. Whether we have simple, stable lives or a myriad of hurdles to jump, help us to enter this season together knowing that the same Christ came among us all and the same John the Baptist bids each of us repent of our own conditions. We thank you that you understand us perfectly as people so no defining of scale is needed for our prayers to have meaning when we come to be alone with you.
Amen.