All the Rowboats

I recently re-discovered a song by Regina Spektor called “All the Rowboats”. The song starts with these words:

“All the rowboats

In the paintings

They keep trying to row away”

The song then goes on to talk about how those rowboats will never row away because there is always a frame in the way.... however much they want to get away they will get stuck as they can’t see life beyond the edge of the painting where the frame obscures their view.

When people thought the earth was flat, their fear of falling off the edge prevented them from exploring too far.

When you discover life beyond the edge of the frame.... when you discover that the earth is spherical and not flat... it opens up possibilities much larger than your brain can often comprehend. Your world view suddenly expands....

Our tendency to limit our experience means however, that we fill up with fear when the possibilities grow. We live with fear when we see possibilities we have never seen before.

We should never be surprised when we see things beyond the edge of the frame that we have been living within. There is life beyond our own experience that we might find difficult to comprehend, yet is out there for us to explore. I believe in God, who is bigger than the frames we use to limit ourselves, yet we often forget to look beyond our own frames to see what he is doing through the things we don’t engage with.

The world does not revolve around our own picture, limited by the frame we choose to put around ourselves. When we see beyond to the other and the different, the possibilities are endless. I read an article in the Guardian this morning about a church in Stoke where a number of refugees from a Muslim background have been converting to Christianity. Sadly as this has happened some of the traditional white congregation in the church have left, failing to see life beyond their tidy frames that narrowly define what church should be. 

Where do the edges of your picture frame lie – where is your experience and your learning limited by your own barriers? Push them out a bit.... row your boat a little bit further.... you never know what you might discover.... you never know what God might be doing..... adventure is an exciting thing. 

Big Life continued....

The second day out in the villages with the Big Life Ministries. This time we went south and it was a much shorter drive with less pot holes. It rained for most of the day on and off so it was much cooler but a lot more muddy!

Walking through the village was a surreal experience and felt like a dream. There were palm trees on every side, the road was too narrow for a normal car (but could fit an auto-rickshaw, just about !), there were green pools and brown pools surrounding us, goats and cows and chickens that were not concerned about human company. It was beautiful.

We began at the local Big Life House Church, which was mostly women, a few men and a couple of children. We sang songs and shared testimony. The testimonies of the women were ones of blessings through the small things when life is really hard. We were told that for some of the women, as they had converted to Christianity, their husbands resented it, and as a consequence their home life became difficult. I really felt for these women who had all sorts of other troubles, around poverty and family life but who could still testify to God's greatness. We spent some time praying for the women before they left to go further into the village. 

The rest of the day was taken up by going to homes to which the church had been invited to pray for the house and to talk to them about our faith. This kind of thing seems alien in a western culture where we keep our selves to our selves in our houses and don't like being intruded on. In this situation, however, it felt natural and welcomed, even when the householders disagreed with the people from the church. Most of the conversations were conducted in Bengali, but it was interesting to watch and listen to the conversations to try and understand what was happening. 

It has been really interesting to be part of Big Life the last few days and to see how they work. Their passion and commitment sets a great example and is something we all commented on. There is so much we can learn from that at home......

Hotel Heaven

Sitting in the reception of Hotel Heaven, I have had two hours sleep in the last twenty five, travelled about seven thousand miles (I think) and am listening to the sounds of beeping horns which I'm sure I will forever associate with Kolkata. My first meal is cheese sandwiches and the spiciest crisps ever..... they actually hurt more than the spiciest ones I had before.


It's difficult to explain how it is here, apart from the fact it is exactly as you might imagine it. It's busy. It's noisy. It's hot. The air is so humid that I left my lovely air conditioned room and my glasses steamed up so I couldn't see until I got to another air conditioned room. The journey from the airport to the hotel took us through a lot of amazing and quite bizarre sites. People on mopeds with sandals and umbrellas, cows by the side of the road and being driven on the road. People pulled carts, bicycle pulled carts, motorized rickshaws, full to the brim buses and hundreds of yellow taxis all jostling for space on a road with no lanes. Yes, people do go in the wrong direction on the wrong side of the road, yet I did not see anyone crash or fall off their bike. 


I'm ready then to be challenged, to be surprised, to be disturbed even..... at the moment it all feels a bit unreal, but it is very real, I'm very here, very now.....


On with the adventure.....