People

Many apologies for not posting in a while. I would have posted earlier this week, but Ronald said something snotty about it, so of course I couldn't post right away.

This evening, I went to a Boys' Brigade (and Girls Association) meeting at one of my services. It was quite interesting/fascinating to stand on the sidelines and watch the folks there interact with one another. Sometimes it can be quite fun to play the wallflower. It struck me all of a sudden that this was home for these people. I know that sounds silly and not at all profound, but it just hit me all of a sudden. These are folks who see one another week in and week out. The children involved, this is what they'll remember and reminisce about when they're older. Each of them have their own gifts, their own personality quirks, their own little worlds--just like we all do. As an outsider looking in, the relationships we share in, the events we are part of, the people who surround us...it's the very stuff of life. It's so funny because teenage boys are teenage boys, and 5-year-olds are 5-year-olds, and the old biddies of the church are old biddies of the church wherever you go. Ever since I've arrived, I have found myself struck by the number of similarities in personality and in human behavior (or behaviour). These things do not necessarily change or go away with a transatlantic flight.

In contrast, yesterday I was reminded of how individual we all are. I had the pleasure of travelling two hours (one way...an hour of which just trying to get out of Norwich) to go to a District Probationers Meeting (yes, they have those over here, too). On the whole, the meeting was a waste of my time and the circuit's petrol, but in the middle, I actually learned a lesson. Usually, I resent and suffer through group exercises...especiallly in a theological frame of reference as I often find them quite over-the-top, theologically pathetic, and worthy of a hundred rolls of the eye. I must admit that yesterday, I started the exercies with a similar mindset. However, somewhere in the middle, even in the midst of my resentment at being there in the first place, I found myself actually reflecting theologically (*gasp*) and learning (this did nothing to relieve my resentment, mind you). Anyways, so we all sit down, sing some wonderfully American praise choruses (gag)...Lord I Lift Your Name on High and Shout to the Lord...and paused for prayer and a short meditation. We were then instructed to go over to a table full of pictures...some icons, some representations of Christ and other pictures...and pick out the picture of how we viewed Christ on that day, at that time. Then, we were to find another person, and between the two pictures we had chosen, to eliminate one and keep the other. After that, we were instructed to find another pair of people, and between the two pictures, narrow it down again to one. In the end, for the twelve people present, we were to choose the one picture that worked for all of us. However, by the time we narrowed it all down, the lady in charge called it off at three. She stopped because had we tried to go any further, people would start to become alienated and excluded from the group. As I participated in the exercise, I noticed myself getting very defensive over my picture choice. It didn't sit well that other people wouldn't agree with my picture of Jesus or that I had to give mine up. But then each time I was to present the group's choice, I took ownership of that one as well. It was all quite peculiar. In the end, though, it all made me realize that despite our common purpose (supposedly) and our common worship of God, we all have different pictures of Jesus in our heads and in our souls and that's perfectly OK. Instead of limiting God to one particular representation, it reminds us that Christ died for all...for people from different countries, different cultures, with different needs. So while some people looked for a Jesus that would meet them in the day-to-day, help them through the mud and the muck of life, others looked for the transcendent God, the God who rules over the earth and encompasses all of creation. God is bigger than we can imagine...and that is such good news! The God I need today may have different characteristics than the God I need tomorrow. (Fully aware that God is complete both today and tomorrow, just my perception of God changes, because I can't comprehend all that God is all at once...it's too much!)

All of this is to say that people are people wherever you go, but that God is big enough to reign over our sameness and our uniqueness. I would be lying if watching the people at the meeting tonight didn't make me a little homesick for the familiarity of friends and family. But at the same time, I am comforted with the knowledge that God is present in the familiar and in the unfamiliar...in the belonging and in the loneliness. Life wouldn't be life without a little bit of both mixed in.