Holding

We seem to spend a lot of our life just holding on. Today for example, we have been battered by noise yet again, which only someone with severe ME and  noise sensitivity would really  understand how terrible that is.


 We have been shocked and hurt by misunderstanding and misinterpretation,  from someone who should know better, and in so many ways we realise there is no easy or unrestricted  clear pathway to follow. 


Everything we achieve feels like walking through treacle, with the effort it requires to  follow through and try to get somewhere.

All of this  means  holding on to paradox, contradiction, and our own complexity. It would be nice to think that following Jesus is always about being lifted up above all the struggle,  in some holy place, but reality is messy, not least dealing with our own emotions, fears, angers, hurts, frustrations. 


Somehow we have to hold all this together within the greater mystery of love and faith. Maybe this is why the times when we have had to hold on most intensely, when all seemed lost, have been the prelude to the most wonderful, joyful , breakthroughs.

Holding on is essential , then,  if we are to remain True , to remain hopeful, to remain safe.

We hold on to love in the very depth of our being. We seek love, where love seems not, we ask for blessings, we ask for guidance, we ask for wisdom to help us through.

Sometimes we feel held by God, other times  we do not feel his presence , yet always the true reality is that he is with us and he is  still holding us.


 When Jesus cried out on the cross in the depth of  suffering and agony,  it seems he could not feel God with him either, yet truly he was held in the power   of Love and though he went through untold horrors, yet still he came through and all the time holding us in the Heart of Love, that we too might be saved.