But there are walls that keep us all divided;
we fence each other in with hate and war.
Fear is the bricks-and-mortar of our prison,
our pride of self the prison coat we wear.
Fred Kaan (1929-2009) translated from the Swedish of Anders Frostenson (1906-2006)
English translation © 1974 Stainer & Bell Ltd.
Hallin Fell is not a significant Wainwright but a delightful spot. In some ways, a microcosm of the world. It overlooks popular Ullswater, full of tourists but its backdrop is Martindale, quiet and secluded and one of the less travelled valleys of the English Lake District. One guide book I read said, ‘you can walk all day in Martindale and never see another person.’ Atop the mountain we shared with a family, rain threatened but sun was promised too.
Later the same afternoon we watched cattle being moved along the road to new pasture while others in a nearby field made a great noise in support. Mother drove in front in the jeep, a toddler beside her in the front, clearly in command from her car seat. Father drove the animals from the rear on his quad bike. It was all so natural.
That’s the world we inhabit. Business and quiet, sun and rain, family holidays and working people, nature and modern transport all together. We have got many things wrong, but not everything.
Alone in the hills where we are not known and not significant except to each other and to God so much of what hems us in as part of the daily round melts away. In this third verse of Fred Kaan’s hymn, I have often focussed on the first two lines but in reality, it is often the last two that deserve most attention, something else that the pandemic has brought into focus. Often, we are afraid of ourselves and our own shadows and yet those selves and shadows are the same to God now as they were before anyone heard of COVID-19.
The little girls on the hilltop with us were wearing sunglasses, clearly the triumph of hope over adversity, clearly, they loved the moment they were in. I heard their mum talking to them in her native Asian language and their dad spoke to them in English. They giggled away happily in both. There was no pride up there but God was in residence as usual.
A prayer
Lord, it is so easy to strap ourselves into the rollercoaster of life without realising that so often we are trying to protect ourselves from fears and foibles that would vanish away if we only stopped valuing ourselves so highly and left God to take charge of the valuation. Forgive us and free us to live without fear, for the sake of Jesus who overcame even the challenge of death to liberate us from its vice-like grip. Amen.