The book I've just finished is "Altar in the World" by Barbara Brown Taylor. It's been a good and helpful read - much to agree with, and much to challenge. One chapter in particular really shook me and I couldn't deal with it, and I will be chewing it over for some time as I learn to find beauty in everything (see previous blogs).
Her final chapter is about blessings or benedictions. She suggests that these shouldn't just be saved for an ending of a service or a time with someone else, or for blessing a particular place or a person for a special time or moment but that saying blessings is a way of understanding and walking in the world in a different way. She suggests that as we are attentive to the world around then we might bless the things we see and it will change the way that we are able to live in the world, and it might help us to deal with some of the difficult stuff better.
Yesterday I forgot how long my staircase is and I kept running at the bottom and fell dramatically on my knees. In that moment all my anger I had been compartmentalising and hiding away came out and I then had to go and take it out on the grass and the weeds in my front garden. Perhaps in Taylor's world I might have found a calmer reaction in blessing the floor for breaking my fall.
Being a minister is so often a great privilege - you get to be with people in their celebrations and their sorrows, walking alongside them as they face whatever life faces. You are people's confidante, their wise voice, and the one they go to for blessings and prayer. Being a minister is also a great challenge - you are often the one people take out their frustrations on and who takes the responsibility for things that are going on, and whilst Jesus holds the strain, sometimes it can feel really heavy as you end up taking on the broken and the bruising in more ways than being a listening ear.
As I was thinking about what Taylor said about blessing in the context of the ups and downs of ministry, and that perhaps by blessing, it might help me deal with some of the unregulated emotions I felt as my knees hit the floor. So here it is (and you might be inspired to write your own!).
A Minister's Blessing
Blessed is our God - God knows all things, sees all things, and holds all things together.
Blessed is God the Father, who opens his arms for us to run into, and places us on his lap, listening to our day.
Blessed is God the Son, whose arms stretched out on the cross embrace us with love. As he lifts us up he puts us on steadier feet than we've ever had before.
Blessed is God the Spirit, whose arms are there even when we think they are not, giving us more than enough comfort and strength to carry on.
Blessed are those who we meet on the way....
Blessed are the ones who knock on the door and ask if everything is alright.
Blessed are the ones who run away when things aren't going their way.
Blessed are the ones who put their hands on your shoulder and remind you that there is good in the world.
Blessed are the ones who raise their voices above their own listening and silence your voice before your speaking began.
Blessed are the ones who seek to reconcile, who recognise the humanness in both you and in them.
Blessed are the ones who refuse to talk or listen because its your fault that everything in their life is wrong.
Blessed are the flowers on the doorstep givers and blessed are the scathing message senders.
Blessed are the facebook posters who bring joy and grace at the right moment in the day and blessed are the posters who make your friends bristle with rage and leap to your defence.
Blessed are those who have walked before you - the steady ship bringers, the chaos causers, the ones that people miss more than most, and the ones that people would rather forget.
Blessed are those who are walking behind you, the next road is already being built with hope.
And blessed are those who are here in the now, brought together as family and companions on the way in which God calls.
Let us walk, let us love, let us hope, let us thrive.
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