CONTENTMENT

It is hard to be content in lockdown. Some, like myself, have too much time on their hands, while others have seemed over whelmed with extra responsibilities and the demands of the computer.

My life had been getting increasingly busy, so at first I was delighted to have each morning free for my writing. In the afternoons I have been able to get into our community garden where there is often someone, keeping our distance, to chat to. But after ten weeks or more and nothing else to record I was so longing for the ban to be lifted and to meet up in reality, with lots of hugs.

It was then God reminded me that ‘godliness with contentment is great gain’.

I have always been inspired by the life of Joshua, Moses young assistant, who eventually became leader of the nation.

Setting out to write his story, while still in the grips of Covid 19, the story of the plagues of Egypt seemed to be relevant to our situation. After all, Pharaoh did ask Moses to pray that God would take the plague of frogs away and God did, though I can never understand why Pharaoh asked for it to happen in the morning. Another night with frogs in his bed?

So if he could ask for that plague to go, surely we can pray for an end to lockdown because of Covid 19?

Well, the frogs did go, but that wasn’t an end to the plagues, was it? There were ten in all, but that was because Pharaoh didn’t keep his word.

‘Yes, yes, make the frogs go and I will let the slaves go free,’ but then he decided he could not do without his slave labour to build his treasure cities.

So, what about us? Emancipation of slaves may have been declared long ago, but there is still so much inequality in the world, and while we are not short of food, many are still starving, oppressed and yes, enslaved.

We may not be in a position such as Pharaoh was, but if God were to answer our cry for an end to lockdown would we be willing to pray and act on behalf of injustice and suffering?

Yes, let’s pray, but meanwhile let us also ask God to help us to find contentment in our present situation, for godliness with contentment is great gain.

  

COVID 19

Is a plague come on us as in Egypt’s land

In those days of so long ago?

Pharaoh had only to ask that it soon be gone

If only he’d kept to his ‘No.’

No to oppression, cruelty and pain

As he built his cities so strong

And do we care for the cheated, the poor

And sorting out right from wrong?

Oh yes, we care that we can’t meet our friends

And no holidays, parties or fun,

But what of the poor, imprisoned, afraid?

What of freedom for everyone?

Oh, what did it take that those slaves be set free

And what was the price that was paid?

A lamb for a house, and its blood on the door

As the angel of death did invade

And we know that God gave his Son as our lamb

That we are forgiven and free

So let’s pray for God’s mercy, protection and grace

And contentment for you and for me.

EAGLE’S NEST

I was recently asked why I call my top floor apartment my ‘Eagle’s Nest.’

Surely the only birds around are seagulls, -  not our best friends by the sea-side if we are eating fish and ships or a cornet. They are likely to swoop down and snatch it from you, however wonderful they are in flight.

Our last home we had named ‘Hafan Deg,’ Fair Haven. We had a picture of a ship coming into harbour on the panel on the front door. This was to be our forever home.

But I needed to move on before I moved up. Joel had preceded me to heaven and my health was not what it was. I was advised to consider sheltered accommodation.

With God directing my path and with the minimum of hassle, I was soon settled in this delightful sunshiny flat. It was deserving of a name.

Without thinking, I found I was referring to it as my ‘Eagle’s Nest.’

So – why Eagle’s Nest?

As children we would gather round the piano and sing with gusto. One of our favourite choruses was

          ‘They who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength

          They shall mount up with wings as eagles.’ From Isaiah 40:31

Years later I flew from London to ‘the uttermost parts of the earth’. I was given the verse from Psalm 139 about taking the wings of the morning, and I proved God’s word, there in the Highlands of New Guinea and again when I went to Ghana, that ‘even there’ God would be with me, and indeed, he kept his promise.

So when I wrote my life story I gave it the title, ‘Wings of the Morning,’ intending a cover picture of a mission plane flying over the mountains. But God had other plans.

I asked a friend if he had a suitable photo I could use. ‘Why a plane?’ he asked. ‘Planes were significant in our lives,’ I told him, but he was a wild-life artist and generously offered for me to use his painting of an eagle, flying against a backdrop of the snow-clad mountains of Alaska.

I realised that the mission planes had only been part of one chapter in my life, whereas the eagle was still very important to  me. You see, there is a verse in Deuteronomy which speaks of the eagle stirring up its nest so that the baby eaglets would be thrust out and learn to fly. I felt  my lovely cosy nest in our ‘Fair Haven’ had been broken up. When my husband died, it would have been easy to let myself plummet to the ground and join him in heaven, but I had a call to teach the  children. I was booked into the schools and chapels. I had to learn to fly and the Divine Eagle was there, swooping to catch me in  my grief and lift me up to still ‘joy in God’ and know his strength.

That year the ‘Divine Eagle’ was the theme of the ‘Ablaze’ convention, and the ministry so meaningful in my life, and now, definitely in my old age, I continue to claim God’s promises that those who wait on the Lord will renew their  strength and mount up with wings as eagles.

Bas’s inspirational painting of the eagle now is not only on the cover of my book, *’Wings of the Morning’, but has pride of place over the fire-place in my ‘Eagle’s Nest,’ continuing to speak into my life.

My prayer is that we may all, waiting on the Lord,  rise up on wings as eagles, run and not grow weary and walk and not faint.

*’Wings of the Morning’ is available on Kindle or with Amazon.