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Reverend Paul Collings BTh (Hons) - - - - paul.collings@methodist.org.uk - - - - 01392 206229 - - - - 07941 880768

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Sunday 17 May 2020

7. Lessons from Bonhoeffer


Locked Down but Not Out
Reflections on Grace when facing  Dark Times. 

“The blessedness of waiting is lost on those who cannot wait, and the fulfilment of promise is never theirs. They want quick answers to the deepest questions of life and miss the value of those times of anxious waiting, seeking with patient uncertainties until the answers come. They lose the moment when the answers are revealed in dazzling clarity.” - Dietrich Bonhoeffer - Christmas Sermon

Psalm 37:7
"Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; do not fret when people succeed in their ways when they carry out their wicked schemes."

Galatians 6:9
"And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.

 I’m fed up with this waiting,
Of being so locked down.
I ask through my impatience, 
Release me, Lord right now.

Yet when I reconsider 
the paths that others shared;
Enforced by their internment;
Lives cruelly impaired.

My plight it seems so paltry
Compared with their poor fate;
Incarcerated, put to death,
The end of their long wait.

I hear the Psalmist  words.
Be still before the Lord;
Wait patiently in his good time
And with his will accord.

You call me now to follow
And wait your purpose here.
To weary not in doing good
But wait and to endure

Lord help me in this lockdown,
To see your greater aim
 Wait upon your sacred  will
And in your grace remain.

Forgive my hasty heart, Lord.
I seek a waiting mind
To patiently, to rest content
And there your peace to find.

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