Making the best use of the time - Midweek Message Wednesday 22nd April

Dear Friends,

                ‘Our homes will be very quiet at this time. But I have found that the quieter my surroundings, the more vividly I sense my connection with you all. It’s as if, in solitude, the soul develops organs of which we are hardly aware in everyday life’ (Dietrich Bonhoeffer¹)

                …the raft offered an unlikely intellectual refuge. He had never recognised how noisy the civilised world was…. his mind was freed of an encumbrance that civilisation had imposed on it. In his head, he could roam anywhere, and he found that his mind was quick and clear, his imagination unfettered and supple. He could stay with a thought for hours, turning it about (written of Louis Zamperini²)

Social isolation and lockdown have presented us with many challenges, not to mention frustrations and difficulties, but I wanted to consider with you one particular opportunity of these unique days that may be available to at least some of us, and  to which the quotes above bear remarkable and striking testimony.  They come from two men experiencing a form of social isolation and lockdown which, I think we would probably agree, goes way beyond anything the vast majority of us are currently experiencing.

The words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer come from a letter that he wrote from an underground Gestapo prison cell,  which was ‘eight by five feet… had no opportunity to see the light of day…no prison yard to walk, no thrushes to hear sing and no friendly guards³’ It was written in Christmas 1944 to his fiancé Maria von Wedemeyer, who was at the time living with his parents.  The letter was accompanied by a poem he had also composed, which would later become a well-known German hymn, and which concluded with the following lines:

While all the powers of good aid and attend us,
boldly we'll face the future, come what may.
At even and at morn God will befriend us,
and oh, most surely on each newborn day⁴!

(If you want to read the whole poem/hymn you can find it here)

The second quote describes the experience of Louis Zamperini, the US 1936 Olympic Athlete, who served in the US Air Force during the Second World War. While conducting a search and rescue mission, Zamperini’s bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean and he found himself, with 2 fellow crew members, drifting on a life raft for 47 days… in almost total silence, with no scents other than the singed odour of the raft, no flavours of the tongue, nothing moving but the slow procession of shark fins, every vista empty save water and sky⁵.

I wouldn’t want to play down for either man, all that they had lost, all that they endured in circumstances neither would have chosen for themselves. Yet, in their different ways,  both testify to the opportunity such solitude afforded them to use and stretch their minds. Freed from the distractions and the encumbrances of everyday life, they could reflect and think. Bonhoeffer was a clear and committed Christian and undoubtedly used the time to think and pray and reflect on Scripture which he had memorised. Louis Zamperini, at this point, was not a Christian but it is possible to see in some of his thinking and reflecting on that life raft, God sowing seeds of thoughts and inclinations that later would come to fruition in his committing his life to Jesus Christ at a Billy Graham rally after the war ended. However, they both used this time of isolation to think.

I’m conscious that out our circumstances will vary during the current lockdown. For some involved in delivering essential services or indeed seeking to look after, or home school, children life may actually be busier and for others, little may have changed. But for some at least, the pace and demands of our lives have reduced, our diaries are emptier, we find ourselves with more free time than normal and the noise and distraction of everyday life is not as pronounced. Of course, for such as these, we could use the ‘extra’ time to watch more Television. I heard this morning that Netflix has had 16m (!) new subscribers since Covid-19 began to make itself felt across the world. But I would want to encourage us to see this as a God given opportunity to use and feed our minds, recalling that exhortation of Paul’s at the beginning of Romans 12 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.  ² Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.( Romans 12:1-2)

So, here are 4 possibilities (by no means exhaustive) but which occur to me:

1) Read (or if you have access to the Bible online) listen to one of the gospels right through – or in large chunks -  asking God to reveal the wonder and uniqueness of the person and the work of Jesus and why it is such a great thing to be a ‘truster’ and  follower of Him

2) Read through the New City Catechism (accessible here) using one Q & A per day and taking some time to think and reflect on the relevant Scripture and the associated writings as a commentary, and praying slowly the given prayer

3) Read a biography of a Christian. As you may have recognised from these last two Midweek messages, I have found tremendous stimulation, challenge and encouragement  in reading through Eric Metaxas’ biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. It is always of immense value to see how God worked in someone else’s life to bring them to faith and to sustain them and use them in that faith to make a difference in the lives of others.     

4) Read and meditate on Scripture. Take a truth about God about Jesus – maybe something about their character or what they have done - that has struck you from your reading of a Bible passage and spend some time, say 10 -15 minutes, thinking about it, turning it over & over in your mind,, admiring, appreciating what you have seen and understood and allowing it to inform and shape your praise of, and prayer to, God .

When trying to explain the purpose of such Christian meditation in which you are seeking not to empty your mind but to fill it with biblical truth, true truth, someone has likened it to putting a tea bag into hot water:

 Hearing the word, or reading it, or listening to a sermon is dipping the tea bag and removing it. There is some change, some transfer of the tea to the water, but not much. Meditation, however, is allowing the tea bag to soak in the water so that the flavour and power of the tea is transferred to and integrated throughout the water. The water becomes tea….. For the tea analogy, imagine yourself as the water, the scripture as the tea bag, and God’s spirit as the tea itself. Allow the scripture to soak in your mind, repetitively dip it in your thoughts as you would a tea bag into warm water. Listen in faith, believing that God will speak to you through his word. Allow the spirit and nature of God to steep in your spirit, entering your heart and mind through his word.⁶

All of these are suggestions; no hard and fast rules in this – but simply again trying to respond to a similar and general injunction of Paul’s to the Christians in Ephesus who would have found themselves in a range of circumstances in terms of the competing demands (or lack of them) upon their time: Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise,  making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.(Ephesians 5:15-16)

Yours in that call to live and use our time wisely,

David

Notes:

¹ Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy – Eric Metaxas p496

² Unbroken - Laura Hillenbrand p173-4

³ Metaxas p 494

⁴ Metaxas p497

⁵ Hillenbrand p 174

⁶ John Tillman from an article in Park Forum The Practice of Meditation – Tea which can be found here