We have just spent five days on holiday in Norfolk, when apart from a very orange day on Wednesday thanks to the Sahara sand, we have had a lovely week. We have travelled less than five hundred miles during the week but the signs that have made my heart sink over and over again is “Road closed” the journey home yesterday took less than an hour and a half and we had to detour on three occasions due to road closures. The reason I get particularly stressed about this at the moment is that with Diesel costing almost £1.70 a litre I feel to be just throwing my money away. We have been diverted due to road closures in different places, every single day of our holiday and even last Sunday as we travelled to my morning service, we were diverted due to a road closure and had to take a long detour.
Rant over! It feels so good to get that off my chest! In my business days I spent hours of my life putting together five and ten year plans, which was always considered to be good business practice in the 80’s and 90’s particularly with the pending doom of the dreaded Millennium Bug, there was an imperative back than to be proactive, rather than reactive and I remember running training courses at one point in my career, which involved action planning and we taught trainees the importance of contingency planning, in case things didn’t work out as we had planned.
My road closures remind of a time three years ago when I had a clearly formulated plan for my life and for my work, I felt in control, sure, there was always the chance that things wouldn’t go to plan, but I saw myself as a strategic thinker and could normally figure my way around most things. Thankfully, each time we have come across a “Road Closed” sign this holiday, I have managed to find my way through, I confess that my poor wife had to put up with my endless complaining as though the road had been deliberately closed, just to inconvenience me, then she had to listen to my self praise that once again, I had achieved the impossible and ended up in the right place without the aid of diversion signs, satnav, or maps!
Three years ago, I couldn’t have foreseen the challenges that that the Coronavirus would present me with, in the early weeks it was little more than an inconvenience, in fact if I’m being honest, I quite enjoyed the enforced break in my busy work schedule, but the longer this has gone on the more stressful life has become. I have seen others around me sink, due to the pressures and there have been times that I have felt myself sinking. I believe that I have only survived the last two years because of my faith, my family, and my friends and as we fast approach the second anniversary of the start of the pandemic in the UK, I am grateful to those who have helped me through.
With all that in mind, I can’t even start to imagine the turmoil in the minds of Ukrainian people who have left their homes and their loved ones behind, tied their pet dogs to lampposts and fled their homeland, not knowing where they will end up. For them the Road Closed sign is a massive issue, they have far bigger problems than the price of a litre of fuel, or the extra ten minutes added to their journey. For them, there is little chance of going back, this is not simply a diversion, this is life changing.
Prayer
Loving God, your Son Jesus Christ, wept over Jerusalem.
Today, we weep over Ukraine.
We weep for those uprooted from their homes and lives.
We weep for those cowering in basements.
We weep for those who have witnessed death and destruction on their streets.
We weep for those separated from parents, from children, from spouses and siblings.
We are amazed at the resilience of people seeking to comfort those in need and so we pray for Governments opening up borders so that Ukrainians can have safe passage.
We pray for churches and individuals providing food, clothing and shelter.
We pray for medical workers ensuring that shattered bodies are put back together again.
We pray for ordinary Russians demonstrating and voicing their disapproval of the military actions in Ukraine.
May the Holy Spirit give us the willpower to turn our tears into action also.
May we, through our words, prayers and example pursue the things that make for a just peace in the world today and especially in Ukraine.
In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray.
Amen