Repositioning

This morning, we went to Baseline Community Church. It's a church that I found on the web a few months ago, when I did a Google search for "churches in Claremont". I had been there last Sunday, which was timely as the pastoral team was just beginning a series on the rhythm of God. The associate pastor, Donn, preached about giving (in every way) as an integral part of our rhythm with God.

Today, the pastor's wife preached (it was Mother's Day). She spoke on prayer and fasting as other components of the life that God expects us to have. One thing jumped out at me. She described fasting as an experience of "repositioning" ourselves, as a forceful reminder that we ought to hunger most fervently for God. When we are sated and satisfied, she said, it is easy to feel independent, without any need for God. But when we are hungry and needy, we feel vulnerable and dependent -- the mindset that can drive us on our knees to our Father.

This idea of repositioning resonated with me. Over the last two weeks, I have experienced a complete change in my daily rhythms. I no longer need to check emails, talk to my colleagues, vet papers, check reports, and lead meetings -- the events and activities that gave my work-days their structure and discipline. Bereft of these structures, I have had to re-create new rhythms. As the summer term begins tomorrow, there will be new structures and rhythms to adapt to.

The last two weeks have also resembled a humbling experience of repositioning. Shorn of family, of the usual activities that used to fill each day for me, I felt strangely cut loose, estranged, as it were, from community. I was hungry and humbled, for the experience made me realise how much I needed my family and how much they filled my heart. The ten days without them was, in a sense, an extended fast that made me feel vulnerable and needy. I am grateful to God for them.

I am one of the lucky ones, because of them. And because of Him.