Jesus Is The Way

  By all accounts the phrase ‘carpe diem’ doesn’t actually mean ‘seize the day’ – it originally had a much more horticultural resonance. Basically it really means, in the original, ‘to harvest something when it’s ready’. Our own more modern translation of the Latin probably says more about the kind of grabbing society we live in.   What would it mean today, this day, to harvest the thing that is ready?   In the midst of the global pandemic, the past seems like a place that has drifted off into the mist, and the future seems inconceivable. The other day I tried to indulge myself in some future plans, but I quickly realised I had no idea at all what the future might look like. Not the slightest inkling, and to be honest I never have had a clue. None of us have, whether we make plans or not.   It came to me that what we have these days is actually a bright shining light on something that has always been true. By the grace of God, we only have now, today, this

  Let it Go.   It’s easy to sing about it. The trouble is it’s much harder to do.   For many of us we can tend to wrap ourselves in a covering of past pains and wounds. If the hurt has gone deep enough it can all too easily become who we are, how we define ourselves. It clings to us like a skin. The thing we feared becomes the thing we fear to lose, and so we end up hanging on to hurt. We don’t want to lose anything of what we are, and so we grasp hold of even the stuff that really stops us being fulfilled and who we really are.   The chrysalis can feel comforting. It’s familiar and enwraps us. It might even make us feel warm and protected. But the problem is that it’s not what you were made to be. It may be part of a painful stage you need to go through, but it’s not your end-state. Being stuck at this stage means you are not yet fulfilled or fulfilling your ultimate purpose.   There is another form awaiting you, where you become the multi-faceted bu