King Charles – Aspirational Adventures

The other day our vicar was saying how when we come to church we should pull out all the stops because we are meeting with the King of Kings and made us think about how we would react if King Charles [still can’t quite get used to that after all my life having a Queen] was coming to visit.

I totally get where he is coming from. I’ve got a friend coming today who doesn’t visit often so I’ve had a clean and tidy up. But I’ve realised when people come to my house regularly I clean less. So yes they still get a clean bathroom – but that’s a daily task anyway – and with my writing groups I make sure the post isn’t on the table but I don’t clean in the same way as when they first came. The more familiar I am with my friends the less I worry about what they will think of my house, or even notice how tidy it is. And I think that’s probably how I am with Jesus.

God is omnipresent – so all seeing, all knowing, etc etc – and I share my good times, bad times, angry times, frustrated times, joyful times, etc with them whether I do that consciously or not. If God is really omnipresent then God is always there but there are just times when I try not to acknowledge it, when I truly do forget, or when I truly want to not have God in the picture.

So if God is with me all the time, and loves me unconditionally just as I am, should I really be sprucing up? Should I really be acting like God is like King Charles?

I hate to say this but King Charles, or my vicar and many others, don’t love me unconditionally just as I am but God does. Jesus came to reconnect me with God not because I was good, did things right, was “clean and tidy”, but Jesus came to do this for me, for everyone, because. Yup just because.

So I get where the vicar is coming from but I also think that if I am hanging out with God all the time being me then I can just carry on being me whether I’m at church, at home, in the bathroom, watching Netflix, walking the dog, reading a book, or hoovering the living room.

I think we need to be careful of “pulling out all the stops” for God because then we are being on our best behaviour and not being real. It is like saying “fine thank you” when someone asks you how you are rather than telling the truth.

We need to be real with God and sometimes that will mean letting God, and others, see our dirty, untidy side, our real side, too.

Cultural Diversity

I’ve been writing a piece for Godspace for World Cultural Diversity Day on 21st May but realised, after having my daughter to stay this past week, that this weekend in the UK is going to be quite culturally diverse.

It is the coronation of King Charles III. There are mixed reviews on what sort of person he is but also there are people coping with getting used to change after having Queen Elizabeth II for over 70 years. Most of us have not known another monarch.

There are some people lining the route of the coronation parade already. Some have been there for a few days so they can get a good space. The mood is joyous and hopefully they won’t get too wet. But then there are others putting up angry tweets about fascism, some angry that a country struggling to support those on low incomes can afford this pageantry, others who are still angry about the ending of his marriage to Princess Diana. There are also some who don’t really care one way or the other. For them is it another public holiday in a month that had two public holidays already so they are either pleased about that or frustrated at having to fit things in to a shorter working week, or having to work harder over the weekend because they are in hospitality or various support services.

The division of those excited by, those angry by and those indifferent too covers all ages, races, religions, genders. There is no one group who can say “all our people think x”. There is a diversity within the diverse groups.

But what I have noticed is that there is not chatting between the groups. Each are putting their stuff up on social media or doing their thing without a thoughts to why others think and feel how they do.

Bunting knitted by my Mum outside her house

This would be a good place, a safe place, to start a conversation about diversity, but it won’t happen. I wonder why not? A thought from my QEC practitioner about something else but that fits in with this is that sometimes people feel so unsafe due to unresolved issues that they would rather keep the other person in the “bad box” by whatever means than chat through differences.

I agree but also even if you are the calm one it can be difficult to talk to someone because the other person is so scared that they can come over as violent, angry, not willing to talk, or maybe not even sure what they really think. If we are too anxious we are in defense mode and so cannot hear anyone else because we need to keep our barriers firmly in place. The only way that will change is if each and everyone of us can admit that we should not be in this highly tense state and be able to heal.

Wouldn’t it have been lovely if this had been the weekend to start on this healing process but instead the dysfunctional British royal family has its own issues it needs to sort. Much of which came out in Prince Harry’s book. And many of these issues are fueled by the media across the globe who like to report the bad rather than the good.

So I pray and leave it to God to work on each and everyone of us to let go and find that true inner peace that is so important to the healing of this world.