Ma Wa Gray

  The young man steps onto the trail. He pats the left pocket of his khaki shirt checking that his pipe, tobacco and lighter are in their usual place. He deftly swings the binocular strap  around his neck and sets off.  He marvels at how long his strides are. There is a new spring in his step, or rather an old spring in his step, he delights in its return. He knows that if he needs to run, he can run. A smile spreads across his face, a gentle, shy smile.  He walks the meandering path with purpose. As the reality of this new world settles around him he notices that everything around him is so much more vibrant and alive. The trees pulse with life and chlorophyll, he can almost feel the rhythm of life being sucked up from the nurturing ground, through the roots and out into the canopy above him. Here even the trees have a spirit.   And here the rocks tell their stories too. Stories he's been trained to read and yet now they echo with such clarity that he is a...

  The night before Jesus died He washed the feet of his disciples. At the time this action was seen as a hugely humbling gesture. Feet are intimate, they are sweaty, dusty, our very human connection to the earth upon which we walk. Knowing what we know now about feet and their connection to the rest of our bodies, and our souls, I feel this humble act that Jesus performed for his beloved friends must have been a far more intense spiritual experience than we initially make it out to be. He wasn't just cleaning the dusty roads off their feet, he was cleaning their souls.   Jesus would have connected to his disciples in a way that would have told him everything he needed to know about them, of this I am certain. He would have known who was tired, overwhelmed, battling with digestion, anxious, who had betrayed him. The stories of his friends would have been written on their soles, and souls. I suspect that Jesus would have gone to the part of the foot connected to the solar p...

  1 KINGS 19 11 - 13 Sometimes we find ourselves a long way from home. Sometimes it’s a geographical distance. Everything is unfamiliar – the food, the culture, the climate, the clothing, the people. And sometimes we can feel a long way from home in our hearts – even though we are surrounded by those who are familiar to us and who love us. Today I want to talk about a time in my life when I was a very long way from home, both geographically and emotionally. 15 years ago I was a graduate unable to find a job. I also found myself in a massive crisis about the direction in which my life was heading, or in this case, not heading. I had met my future husband, Stephen, and although I knew he was the man God had chosen for me I was at war with myself and with a future I was so uncertain about. And I wanted to run away from it all. I was depressed, anxious and terrified. And I am sure that some grade 8s might chose similar words to describe how they have felt in the past two weeks. It was ...