One of the things that has come through the current inspiring discipleship course that I have been attending - ‘Practising The Way’-, is the need to commit to becoming an apprentice of Jesus. It requires a full bloodied commitment in the same way that Jesus’ first disciples literally left their livelihoods to follow Jesus in a totally whole hearted way. In modern society we find that ‘all or nothing’ approach really daunting and we often fall short, sticking with the life we have rather than the life God has prepared for us.
One shining example of what can happen when we are totally obedient to God is the remarkable life of Clare Crockett, someone you may not have heard of. She was born and lived in trouble torn Derry City (or Londonderry depending on what side of the Irish Sea you are from!). Growing up during ‘The Troubles’ in Northern Ireland of the 1980/90s she was an upbeat and full of life teenager. As a young woman she did what people of her age did – drunk and smoke too much, partied hard and loved going out with boys.
Clare also was a bit of a self-confessed ‘drama queen’. Her desire was to be famous, and she was very talented. At the age of just 14 she had her own acting agency, she went on to become a Channel Four presenter and appeared in a major feature film (‘Sunday’ with ex Dr Who Christopher Ecclestone) but despite her potential, and her fame, it was not enough to fill the void she felt within her. She once said “I achieved everything, but I had nothing”.
That changed when as an 18 year old she went to Spain in what was termed a ‘God-incidence’ (not a co-incidence) expecting to party some more but instead ended up on a pilgrimage. She attended a church service on Good Friday 2000, queued up to kiss the feet of a statue of Christ. She looked up at Him and later said: “I remember looking at Him and in that moment I felt the mercy of God. It was my sins that nailed Him to the cross. He loves me and He died for me”. She just cried and cried, realising “I had to change how I was living my life”.
She felt she was being called by God to be one of his ‘Sisters’ (a nun) hearing God tell her “I want you to live in poverty, chastity and obedience. If you do this, I will give you the grace and strength to bear it”.
Clare Crockett then gave up her family back in Derry, the partying lifestyle, her acting career despite the protestations of her agent that she was on the cusp of acting success, becoming ‘Sister Clare Maria of the Trinity and the Heart of Mary’ in Spain. There she travelled to the USA and Ecuador carrying out God’s work in teaching and missionary work for pupils, especially those who lived in extreme poverty.
In April 2016, an earthquake hit the town of Playa Prieta in Ecuador including the school Clare and other Sisters were teaching and living at. The building collapsed as she was trying to get the children and her Sisters back down the stairs. Her dead body was found with her guitar in her hand and with arms protecting children. The earthquake in Ecuador killed almost 700 people and injuring more than 23,000. Clare was just 33.
Her death was reported around the world, and her body was repatriated back to Derry for her funeral mass. Although as a young person she wanted to be famous and get on the Hollywood red carpet, she lived a much more productive and God driven life. Various miracles have been attributed to her and the work she did. It’s a great example of what can happen when you truly give your life to God.
I recently attended the ‘Practising the Way’ course (based on the John Mark Comer book) at my local church and it was really fruitful for those of us who attended, myself included. Its aim has been to help us become Apprentices to Jesus in terms of helping us learn how to be with Jesus, how to be like him and do as he did. That has involved a fair amount of personal reflection, a reconsideration of how we currently live our lives and to commit to a ‘Rule of Life’ to allow that to happen.
One of the biggest ones is to practice ‘Sabbath’, something Jesus honoured and used to refresh himself. In a lot of ways -and for a lot of us I suspect- (re)introducing Sabbath is amongst the most significant changes to our lives that we can make. Over the decades Sabbath has become a gift that I suspect most of us rarely use. Jesus made it plain that “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath”. The point being that it is a blessing rather than a burden.
As we found out on the course though, it can be hard to honour the Sabbath, because we all lead such busy lives, and it has become very easy for the Sunday to be just another day on the weekly treadmill of life. However, the idea of Sabbath is that it is a time set aside to allow us to stop. To refrain from working, from wanting, from worrying etc.
What we have learnt though is that God wants us to use the Sabbath where we are in whatever situation we find ourselves in so it maybe that placing an entire day for non-work or rest is just not possible for you, if say family or friends come over, or if there is something urgent you have to prepare for the Monday etc. That means finding a period of time where you can rest and ‘stop’. If that is just one hour then that is fine. The important thing is to start a regular rhythm of the Sabbath so that it is a form of ritual for you because repetition is good for the mind and soul, and aim to gradually increase that period of time. Eventually over time you may find that you actually crave and look forward to your Sabbath time, and it will reap rewards for you in the gift it brings you.
The idea is to ‘start small’ and to think ‘subtraction not addition’, in other words do not add the Sabbath to your current busy life but think what you can cut out- do you for instance need to spend so much time on your mobile or connected devices? To my own personal horror I found out that I spend on average 3 hours a day on my mobile checking for messages, updates, or listening to podcasts etc. I have been able to reduce that by around 50% and able to use the saved time to practice a period of rest, where I do not carry out any work activity but just stop, rest and wait for Jesus to come.
What precisely you do during your period of Sabbath is though down to you. You may find it by lighting a candle, eating a Sabbath meal, going out for a walk (perhaps with a dog if you have one), reading scripture or spending precious time with your family or friends in good conversation. Whatever works for you, whatever gives you that spiritual rest we all need, you should aim to do, and to do it regularly. Our health and lives depend on it!
One of my favourite songs is the 1972 Lou Reed classic ‘Perfect Day’, which is perhaps best known when a version was made of it in 1997 to promote the BBC’s music coverage and the ‘Children In Need’ charity.
It is at heart a simple ode to what one person (in this case Lou Reed) thought was his ‘perfect day’. For those not familiar with it, it tells of his perfect day being spending a day with the love of his life drinking sangria in a park, feeding animals in the zoo, going to a movie and then “we go home”. The song celebrates that it is a perfect day because he spent his time with that person, his problems all left alone and being able to forget himself, and then commenting “You made me forget myself, I thought I was someone else -someone good”.
However, the emotional crescendo of the song is when one line is repeated four times. The lyric in question? “You’re going to reap just what you sow”.
As Christians we will know that line is very familiar to us. It comes from two parts of the New Testament - 2 Corinthians 9:6 where Paul talks about whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly and whoever sows generously will also reap generously, making it clear “A man reaps what he sows”. Also in Galatians 6:7-9 Paul talks about God not being deceived because “..you reap whatever you sow”.
Although here Paul was talking about the need for people to give generously in community it applies also to how we generally live our lives.
In simple terms it can mean that your current set of circumstances or situation are a result of previous behaviour. One thing leads to another. Jesus himself said something similar in Matthew 26: 26:52 when he said to Peter “..for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword”, or more plainly “those who live by the sword (will) die by the sword”. Look at Barabas who felt the way to find peace in Palestine was through force when in fact it will only come through love.
The idea of us all in a sense preparing our own futures by our current actions is something that the Old Testament spoke about. Solomon had previous said that those who plant injustice will harvest disaster, Hosea talked about those who planted wickedness will in time reap its own evil. Proverbs of course teaches us that “They will eat the fruit of their ways and be filled with the fruit of their schemes” (Proverbs 1:31).
Going back to the song ‘Perfect Day’, what Lou Reed was trying to say I think is that we all need to spend more time having our own ‘perfect days’, doing things that are positive, life affirming, of the spirit, and out of that better, good things will come, with our real treasure being after our time on earth has ended.
A link to the most well known version of ‘Perfect Day’ is below -wait for the Sir Tom Jones vocal interpretation of Paul’s wisdom!
Social media gets rightly blamed for a lot of the toxicity that is around in modern life-online trolls, virtual stalking, cyber bullying which, if you let it, can lead to real issues about self esteem leading to depression and anxiety. Fortunately, social media can also be a force for good. One of the good things is that with the algorithms that platforms such as You Tube, Facebook and Tik Tok use, if you stick to the spiritually healthy and righteous material, you will see more of that type popping up on your account.
A recent example of the good stuff that as a Christian you can see is a short (2.5 minutes) film entitled ‘God is Speaking’ produced by a Christian filmmaker (‘Joseph the Dreamer’). So the story is that a man gets up in the morning to go to work but is preoccupied by his busy life. His alarm wakes him up but he misses a yellow sticky note on the back of it saying “Love Ya!”. He cleans his teeth but misses the sticky note on his bathroom cabinet asking “Call me”. As he dresses himself for work a sticky note on the back of his suit tells him “You’re great!”. He talks to someone on his mobile missing the note suggesting “Speak soon?”. Making his way out of his building a note in the lift tells him “You’ve got this”. On the tube to work he reads a paper whilst ignoring two messages telling him “It’s OK “ and “I’m here”. This is repeated whilst he is at work. On his return home he ignores the message “I’m proud of you”. At home he eats a take away pizza whilst listening to music even though behind him his entire kitchen wall is full of yellow sticky notes telling him “Let’s catch up”, “Call me when you are free” , “Be still” and “I’m here for you”. The film ends with two messages written in yellow “God is speaking” and “Are you listening?”
You can view the short film by following the link below but it is a very simple but very powerful way to show how so many of us go about our daily lives preoccupied with all kinds of trivial stuff whilst the big important things like having a relationship with God tends to be ignored by us. It can be so difficult with the lives we tend to live to always pick up the messages that God is sending to us-sometimes they can be quite subtle thoughts rather than those written on yellow sticky notes!
The spiritual art though is to avoid being consumed too much by our personal and professional lives that we are ignoring God. He wants to have a relationship with us, He wants to support and bolster us, to listen to what is going on in our lives and to take on His shoulders our burdens.
As much as you can I would urge you to ‘listen’ because God is speaking to us daily. As Jesus said “Whoever has ears let them hear”.
