Brothers, Sisters and beloved Children in the Lord,

The Wilderness
During this past week I had a brief conversation with the owner of an iPhone about the benefits and disadvantages of the phone. While there are many major benefits the one great disadvantage is that the sender of an e mail to the phone is aware that you have received the e mail and sometimes they wonder why you have not promptly replied.

It reminded me that we are living in a world of very rapid change where communication is instantaneous and the expectation is that you will reply in similar haste. This thought then prompted me to reflect upon my sermon last week and some of my reading during the week. My reflections follow.

Last weekend I preached on the theme of the wilderness. Lent is a time when we enter the wilderness – we are journeying on unfamiliar ground and with little awareness of what may lie ahead of us and taking time to ensure we follow the right guide posts. God has in store for us spiritual riches beyond our imagination.

As I mentioned on Ash Wednesday one of the resources I am taking with me on my wilderness wandering during Lent is a book based on the wisdom of GK Chesterton (20th century English writer and instrumental in the conversion of CS Lewis to Christian faith).

In this past week I have spent some time contemplating these startling words which follow:

“Old Things New
It is of the new things that men [people] tire – of fashions and proposals and improvements and change. It is the old things that startle and intoxicate. It is the old things that are young. There is no skeptic who does not feel that many have doubted before. There is no rich and fickle man who does not feel that all his novelties are ancient. There is no worshipper of change who does not feel upon his neck the vast weight of the weariness of the universe. But we who do the old things are fed by nature with perpetual infancy. The Napoleon of Notting Hill

Ask for the Ancient Paths
Thus says the Lord:
Stand at the crossroads, and look,
And ask for the ancient paths,
Where the good way lies; and walk in it,
And find rest for your souls.
But they said, “We will not walk in it.”

Jeremiah 6:16”

May David of Menevia, Chad of Lichfield and all the saints walk with you in your journey of faith this week.