Empty

The phone

Charging

Blinks at me

‘23 minutes until full’

If only…’

I’m indebted to the cultural influence of Methodism in my life. It has left me with the idea that faith isn’t purely personal but has social, political, environmental etc implications: it is impossible to separate the two. I could cite so many examples, but there’s a song that we sometimes sing in church that has a line in it that goes:

‘Will you use the faith you’ve found to reshape the world around?’

…and the answer is invariably yes if you have that background as a formative experience. That’s part of the reason why who have that culture tend to be disproportionately involved in community activities, politics, foodbanks etc.

I think it’s why I’ve given a lot of my spare time to community activities. ‘Given’, sounds grudging, it isn’t: it feels natural- living in an area and not being involved doesn’t feel right. Being amongst those who seek to ‘bless’ a community- even though they don’t use that language- does.

It’s is great, but…

…a couple of years ago I got a new job. I like it the step up in responsibility is something I’ve found challenging: most weeks I lose count of the number of work events I’ve not made or have had to leave early. I’ve likewise lost count of the number of crises that has led to a week pivoting in the space of 5 minutes or so. Lately I’ve felt, if not empty, running on ‘refuel now’ , both at work and in the community I live in.

I’ve started to put safeguards in, such as turning off wifi, 4/5G off from 7.30am to 6pm: that’s begun to help, but Methodism and its cultural influence…

…hearing hymn lines like ‘I would the precious time redeem to live for Thee and Thee alone’ doesn’t always help in living a balanced life: sometimes I want the ‘precious time’ to lie fallow and unredeemed and I don’t always know how to ‘stop’.

When I’ve spoken with others in similar situations, the following seem to be helpful:-

-Practice saying the word ‘No’.

-Letting go: the world doesn’t revolve around you.

-We can’t please everyone all of the time & trying to do so isn’t the best recipe for fulfilment.

-If you lead and manage, people will project at you when they are under stress: they often have the capacity, but need to ‘sound off’: this isn’t personal.

-Create something, anything: it doesn’t have to be good, but the process of creation helps.

Maybe this is just a blip and a full life has these moments. Maybe…

My phone

Stops blinking

‘100% full

Stopped charging‘