February '12 Letter
Dear friends,
I don’t have many happy memories of school PE – especially hockey! I was always put on the wing – so I tried to stand as far to the edge of the pitch as possible, turning blue with cold (in my memories, it was always freezing cold when we played hockey) and praying that the ball and the “action” never came near me. On the day it did my friend, Carol, took an enthusiastic swipe at the ball with her hockey stick, missing the ball completely and gave me a bloody nose! Any game which started with a “bully off” wasn’t for me!
Michel Quoist, a French priest, once wrote a prayer called “Football at night”. His experiences of watching a football match, seeing how the players interacted and how the crowd behaved, led him to reflect on how we engage with life and relate to others. He asked…
“Do I play my part well?”
“Do I cooperate with my team without seeking the limelight?”
“Do I battle to the end, in spite of set-backs...?”
“Do I sit too much on the side-lines, criticizing the play of others, my hands in my pockets?”
The same questions could be asked of us, too, about the way we operate at work, in church, in the local club or voluntary group and even at home.
God has called each one of us to play this wonderful game called “Life” and, through Jesus, he calls us to work together as his “team” in the world. When Jesus came into the world, he didn’t sit on the sidelines, but – for our sake - played the most important role in history, to make it possible for us to know Life and to show us how to live our lives to the full, the way God intended.
Michel Quoist writes,
“In this world, Lord, we each have our place.
You, the far-sighted coach, have planned it for us.
You need us here, our brothers need us, and we need everyone.
It isn’t the position I hold that is important, Lord,
But the reality and strength of my presence.
What difference whether I am forward or back, as long as I am fully what I should be?”
I’ll never be won over to the joys of hockey, but I know that I mustn’t live my life the way I played hockey at school, even when it can get challenging or, even, painful. Lent, traditionally a time of reflection for Christians, begins on February 22nd this year. As we reflect on our lives and the life of our church, let’s ask God to show us how we can work together to encourage, support, challenge and care, so that our lives reflect more of that abundant life which comes from him and which was revealed to us in the life of Jesus.
Carolyn