I’m not sure what it is about autumn, but it always feels like the season of mysteries. Perhaps it’s because the evening darkens earlier and we’re chased indoors, to get cosy. Most of our household favours the mystery genre for both reading and watching. Three of us curl up on the couch with a cup of tea and watch the latest mystery offerings on television together. We’ve learned not to go too deep into some shows, trying to figure out what’s happening and solving the crime. The solutions offered are not always viable or realistic. But we watch for more than the resolution. The pull comes from the cinematography, the setting, the acting, the twists and turns of the story and ultimately for the light escapism we can enjoy in a fictional journey.

I’m currently experiencing a writing surge and amongst other writing projects I’ve embarked upon writing a cosy mystery series. Writing is different to publishing. Writing is the start and publishing is what may or may not follow. For reasons that seem inexplicable to me, I have found periods of my life where I have experienced deep grief have been followed by profound writing bursts. Most writers I talk to go into a writing slump after losing someone they love. But for me, in this current season I’m experiencing an unexpected surge of writing ideas, time and energy.* A mystery indeed!

(*If you want to keep up with my writing updates I’ve put a link to my new author website below)

The Improbable

How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?

-Sherlock Holmes in The Sign of the Four (1890)

Isn’t life full of unexpected things! If anything, expecting the unexpected is really something we should learn to expect. Because it keeps happening.

There we are travelling along, doing what we do, and it happens. The unexpected.

Despite our best plans and intentions, life has a habit of throwing us into chaos. It happens because of our own random acts or words, where after an event we pause to wonder, “Why did I do that?” or “Why did I say that?”

It happens because of something someone else says or does. This ‘someone’ may be close to us like a family member, loosely connected to us like a work colleague, or really far away from us, like the president of another country. Their words or actions can spark a chain of events that impact our lives. Change. Unexpected. It happens all the time.

Chaos can happen because nature does what nature does, in nature’s own timing. The storm results in record rainfall, the volcano erupts, the earth quakes, the land slides, the droughts lengthen. We, the people, attempt to monitor, predict and take measures to prevent the unexpected, or at least protect ourselves from the unexpected. We sure can get really mad about those predictions or protections being too much, too little, wrong, right or unwanted.

Life is full of unexpected happenings.

There is a whispering about goodness and bad things. I suspect you’ve heard it or variations of it. It goes something along the lines of, “good things come to good people” and “you’ll get what you deserve” and “if you try hard everything will be okay.” “If we are ‘good’, God will look after us.” “God will like us. If we are good.” and “Bad things will not happen to good people.”

But we know in real life that this isn’t quite true. Unexpected things happen all of the time. Some of those unexpected things are difficult to take. They’re not okay. They’re not good and they make life very hard. Bad things do happen to good people.

Bad things happening to good people is not improbable. It is not impossible. It is unexpectedly, expected.

Coming Alongside

Enter our faith in a God who walks alongside us.

This is what makes the improbable and the impossible bearable.

God-With-Us. Emmanuel. God who understands fully and completely our struggles, our challenges, our failings, our losses, our grief, our grappling with the unexpected.

We are never alone in our suffering. God is with us.

God, my shepherd!
I don’t need a thing.
You have bedded me down in lush meadows,
you find me quiet pools to drink from.
True to your word,
you let me catch my breath
and send me in the right direction.

Even when the way goes through
Death Valley,
I’m not afraid
when you walk at my side.
Your trusty shepherd’s crook
makes me feel secure.

Psalm 23:1-4, The Message

Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson

I never used to like Psalm 23. I found no comfort in thinking of suffering and walking through Death Valley. But I was younger then. As life has meandered along, suffering has become something that I’ve grown to expect and respect. Unexpected suffering, while unwelcome, can sometimes be a blessing in disguise.

I am not being flippant. The suffering itself isn’t good. It remains unwanted and can devastate us. But if, in time, even in our vulnerability, we are open to searching and receiving, we may discover the blessing God reveals. We may come to gratefully treasure the sustaining presence of God through the most difficult times of our lives.

On the one hand, I’d rather it didn’t happen, this unexpected suffering, but viewed from another perspective, if that particular event hadn’t happened, if that person hadn’t said those specific words, I would not have experienced the joy of God walking alongside me in my suffering. Even as I write these words, I’m reminded of the Apostle Paul, and how annoying I find the way he goes on about suffering. Part of me wants to scream, “Suffering is not a badge!”

There’s more to come: We continue to shout our praise even when we’re hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next. In alert expectancy such as this, we’re never left feeling shortchanged. Quite the contrary—we can’t round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit!

Romans 5:3-5 The Message

Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson

So please receive my offering as a gentle sharing of my own story in my own time. It is neither a badge I’m wearing nor a badgering from me to you about finding joy in your own suffering. I hope this post comes to you as a reminder of God’s grace in hard times.

This is the mystery of the unexpected. The mystery of the improbable. We can hold two things together that are simultaneously in conflict with each other. While we maintain an unwillingness to embrace the unexpected suffering, we can also discover the joy of being able to experience God’s comfort when needed.

An unsolvable mystery. God’s grace.

Meaning

A Blessing in Disguise - Something that happens is bad but afterwards leads to something good happening that otherwise wouldn’t have been possible.

Prayer

Find something to create a disguise like a hat, scarf, glasses or wig. Get yourself a pen and paper and write, ‘Detective Notes’ on the top of the paper.

• Put on your disguise

Reflect on something unexpected and hard you’ve experienced in recent months or years. You may have felt God with you during your suffering, or you may have mourned the absence of the presence of God.

• Take mental notes

Turn your thoughts into what you would like to pray. Perhaps you’ll pray a lament of grief for your loss or hardship. Perhaps you’ll pray with thanksgiving for a blessing in disguise. Perhaps you’ll pray petitioning God for a reveal of what coming alongside you looks like. Perhaps you’ll pray for forgiveness for being the cause of someone else’s suffering. Perhaps you’ll pray for the suffering others you love are currently experiencing. Perhaps your prayer is wide and expansively open to God’s guidance on how to approach the unexepected in your life.

• Write on your Detective Notes

Write or draw your prayer. You may want to write it in ‘code’ or doodle cryptic drawings to stay in the mystery vibe or so you can keep it confidential to yourself if others are around you. This is your prayer to God.

If you’re using this prayer in a group setting

Provide a large selection of potential disguises for participants to choose from. Invite everyone to put their disguises on as a way of showing their participation in the prayer. As a signal to indicate the prayer has finished, those who are praying can remove their disguises.

The Curiosity Journey

Join me this June in my month long retreat, The Curiosity Journey

The Curiosity Journey

Do you love a good question? How do you feel about exploring something new? Can the pull of nostalgia coexist with hope for the future? The Curiosity Journey is an invitation to participate in an experience of wonder and discovery. This month-long retreat-style resource is designed for those open to being curious and to let that curiosity lead an exploration of faith and possibility.

Throughout the ages, the Church has flexed and changed alongside contemporary society and culture. In some eras, change was enormous. In other periods, time seemed to stand still, the decades stretching to centuries with a routine rhythm to the ways of practicing Christian faith. Not so long ago, the Church was the place of answers and moral codes. In many countries, at least one church building could be found in every small village and town.

Today, as ancient church buildings find new lives as homes or galleries, our internal spiritual landscapes are also profoundly changing. The horizon is shifting. We’re experiencing an unquenchable thirst to find new pathways for faith.

Once, the trend was to know the right answer, and asking questions was akin to having doubts and lacking faith. Increasingly today, as an expression of our faith, there is a hunger for asking questions that have no easy answers. In this curious space where humans and our technologies fall short of the answers we seek, we connect with the mysteries of God.

Reaching into our past, searching for curios, sitting contemplatively in the present and casting forward with hope into what might be ahead on our path, The Curiosity Journey is a creative approach to re-enchanting our Christian faith, inspiring wonder and awe.

Subscribe to The Curiosity Journey

Sign up to my new Author Website

This post has included a bit about my writing. I know many of you like to keep up with my latest writing endeavours. I thought you might like to know about my new author website.

You’ll find me at https://carolinebindon.com/ I'd love to drop into your inbox occasionally with news from my writing desk. If you do sign up to my newsletter there, it is a two step process. You may need to check your spam or junk folder for the confirmation email that you will need to accept to be added to the list.

What do you think about this saying? How do you feel about a blessing in disguise? What do you find curious? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments or hit reply to this post and email me. I will reply to all emails… even if it takes me a few days to get back to you!

When was the last time you had a secret that you couldn’t wait to reveal? Can you feel the sensation of thrill and anticipation as you desperately try to keep something to yourself, until it wells up and out of you and, whether deliberately or more likely unintentionally, it spills out of you.

The spilling metaphor works best as liquid for me. Just yesterday as I was busy writing I spilled my glass of water. A classic manoeuvre for me. Absorbed in thinking about whatever I’m doing, I wave my hands to think. In doing so, my hands inevitably collide with whatever drink is in the way. I have become a whizz at drying out paper and books. I’ve even dried out my laptop more than once, but fortunately, it is like a cat with nine lives!

A curious thing

So why beans? I’m imagining one of those bulk-bins, where you scoop up beans to pour them into a bag. Miss the edge of the bag? You spill the beans. Overfill the bag? You spill the beans. Amy Grant had a song on her Behind the Eyes album called Curious Thing which talked of weighing up rice and beans. It came to mind when I thought of spilled beans.

Let me tell you 'bout a kid I knew
A pudgy girl back in school
She had greasy hair and geeky glasses
Object of ridicule
The other day in the check out line
They were ringing up my rice and beans
There she was, a pretty little face
On the cover of a magazine
And I said life is a curious thing
Life, ooh life is a curious thing

Just goes to show that you never know
Just what tomorrow may bring
But I'll tell you this that what it is
Is seldom what it seems
'cause life is a curious thing
Life, ooh life is a curious thing

- Amy Grant, Curious Thing

Life can be curious. And isn’t it great that it is? Weighing everything up. Wondering about our rice and beans. If everything had predictability all of the time, where would we find the wonder? Where would we be surprised by joy? Where would be our spark of adventure? How could we yearn for something we didn’t have? How could we love deeply and widely? Where would our faith journey take us? Would we even have a faith journey?

It’s those curious things that happen upon us unexpectedly that make our lives colourful and interesting. When something surprising, curious, exciting and thrilling happens, it’s only natural to want to tell someone else. Keeping that secret inside can be torture. Of course we want to spill the beans!

It’s also those curious things that create scandal and feed salacious gossip. “Come on, spill the beans,” isn’t perhaps a harmless saying about sharing something joyful. Instead, it is possibly an encouragement to share something a little bit scandalous about someone else, to share a secret that shouldn’t be shared, to let out something to the listener that the listener has no right to hear. Like a journalist with a ‘scoop’, we find ourselves in a position of making a choice, of pouring out the information we hold, releasing it from our thoughts and sending it out into the wild to do whatever it will do when heard by others.

Spilling into thanksgiving

Spilling beans, it seems, can bring a wonderful release of sharing joy or it can be a burden of releasing something else entirely. As followers of Jesus, we have a responsibility to speak with love. We also acknowledge the frailty of people, ourselves included, and bring God’s grace and compassion to both what we speak about and what actions and thoughts we take on what we hear.

We are constantly bombarded with spilled beans from both traditional media and our less truth-filtered social media feeds, so much so that we can become numb to the nonsense we read. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by what is shared as truth, but curiously is no such thing. In the meantime, we have to live our very ordinary, everyday lives. We want to do this in an authentic way.

Life is indeed a curious thing. How do we live it? That is also curious, but we have the opportunity to live life full of thanksgiving for our God who is abundantly generous and continually spills love into our lives.

My counsel for you is simple and straightforward: Just go ahead with what you’ve been given. You received Christ Jesus, the Master; now live him. You’re deeply rooted in him. You’re well constructed upon him. You know your way around the faith. Now do what you’ve been taught. School’s out; quit studying the subject and start living it! And let your living spill over into thanksgiving.

-Colossians 2:6-7 The Message

Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson

Meaning

To tell or let slip secret information to others.

Prayer

• Scoop beans. Hold the scoop of beans in your hand and look at what you’ve scooped.

Think about a piece of information you have about someone that other people might be interested in knowing but you know is confidential.

• Let the beans sitting in your scoop pour back into the basket, bowl or container.

As you watch the emptying scoop, give this bit of information you hold into God’s care. Invite God to help you stay appropriately silent, or to guide you in speaking to the right person at the right time.

• Scoop beans again. Hold the scoop of beans in your hand and look at what you’ve scooped.

Consider the joyful abundance that comes from God. Let thanksgiving for the way God comes alongside us in good and troubling times, build up inside your thoughts.

• Let the beans sitting in your scoop pour back into the basket, bowl or container.

Let your prayer spill out of you in a torrent of thanksgiving.

If you’re using this prayer in a group setting

Spread large basins or wide shallow baskets or containers spread around the meeting space. Place a jar of spoons next to each basket. Invite people to stand in small groups around each basket, so that each person has space to scoop and pray.

The Curiosity Journey

Join me this June in my month long retreat, The Curiosity Journey

The Curiosity Journey

Do you love a good question? How do you feel about exploring something new? Can the pull of nostalgia coexist with hope for the future? The Curiosity Journey is an invitation to participate in an experience of wonder and discovery. This month-long retreat-style resource is designed for those open to being curious and to let that curiosity lead an exploration of faith and possibility.

Throughout the ages, the Church has flexed and changed alongside contemporary society and culture. In some eras, change was enormous. In other periods, time seemed to stand still, the decades stretching to centuries with a routine rhythm to the ways of practicing Christian faith. Not so long ago, the Church was the place of answers and moral codes. In many countries, at least one church building could be found in every small village and town.

Today, as ancient church buildings find new lives as homes or galleries, our internal spiritual landscapes are also profoundly changing. The horizon is shifting. We’re experiencing an unquenchable thirst to find new pathways for faith.

Once, the trend was to know the right answer, and asking questions was akin to having doubts and lacking faith. Increasingly today, as an expression of our faith, there is a hunger for asking questions that have no easy answers. In this curious space where humans and our technologies fall short of the answers we seek, we connect with the mysteries of God.

Reaching into our past, searching for curios, sitting contemplatively in the present and casting forward with hope into what might be ahead on our path, The Curiosity Journey is a creative approach to re-enchanting our Christian faith, inspiring wonder and awe.

Subscribe to The Curiosity Journey

What do you think about this saying? How do you feel about holding onto a secret? What do you find curious? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments or hit reply to this post and email me. I will reply to all emails… even if it takes me a few days to get back to you!

A quick note before we begin this week’s prayer.

If you read this month’s Seed Disperser, you may already know that Kererū Publishing is moving to a new home. We’re bringing everything (our publications, resources, and books) under one roof on a single new site.

Nothing changes for you right now as a 5 Senses subscriber. Your emails will keep arriving as usual. We’ll be in touch soon with the full details of what the move means for your subscription, and what to expect.

Now, on to this week’s prayer...

My thoughts…

My head knows that ‘Money for Jam’ as an idiom means earning money for doing very little work. By now in this series you’ll have already noticed that I seem to enjoy turning idioms on their head. Sometimes I’ve done this subtly or surprisingly. This one clearly deserves a full upending! Like a self-saucing pudding with jam as the main ingredient for the sauce, we’ll tip it over right now.

The ease of making jam is clearly disputable. There seem to be many ‘ifs’ to make it even a possibility to call it easy. Let’s take them one by one.

If there’s available fruit

I guess the idiom came from a time when people had fruit trees or could go gathering in the wild countryside to get buckets full of berries. The very writing of this paints a picture that sounds more romantic than accessible to me. I do grow blueberries and they love our sandy soil here on the Whangaparaoa Peninsula. Three bushes keep our household, our neighbours and my extended family with a good supply of blueberries for the summer. I have available fruit and I know this is a treasure and not something everyone can access.

If there’s available sugar

That cost of living argument again. Sure, sugar is available at the supermarket for a price. Availability is less of a problem perhaps than affordability. But sticking with availability for a moment. Where does our sugar come from? Here in New Zealand it’s imported in raw format from sugar cane growing countries like Australia and Fiji. All it takes is a reason why a ship can’t get to our sugar refinery… and we have a problem. Twice in the last decade we have hit significant global challenges with availability of imported goods; the start of the Covid years, when shipping stalled, and right now, as the Strait of Hormuz is restricting shipping of oil. For now, sugar is not impacted - but the price of moving it here is! And we’re feeling it in our weekly shopping bills.

If there’s energy, time and/or motivation

We’ll group these three together so we’re not here all day. I don’t know about you, but I think energy, time and/or motivation are all a big deal in our modern age. Wanting to do something is quite different to being able to do it. There are very few of us who make jam out of necessity. We make it because we want to; because we have been given fruit, or have fruit that needs to be used up; because we have a yearning for the taste of fresh jam, because we’re wanting to learn a new skill or because we’re in a slow living phase. Energy. Time. Motivation. These are all factors we must consider before we can start making jam and definitely things we must weigh up before calling jam-making easy. Let’s say we do make jam. Unless we have time off our paid job, how much does making the jam cost us in terms of our labour? Unless we’ve made jam as a relaxing, pleasurable activity, the cost of our time means missing out on rest.

If there’s mastery and a recipe

My paternal grandparents were caterers. They sometimes used recipes, but they both also possessed the remarkable talent of cooking with intuition. Some of it was passed down, some of it was because they got stuck in and perfected their craft by the sheer quantity of their baking and making. Knowing how to make jam is clearly essential if we’ve never made jam before and fewer of us are likely to make jam even once, let alone regularly. Making jam from a recipe might get us there, but jam has some peculiarities. Knowing the right moment to stop boiling the fruit so the jam doesn’t turn into something chewy and inedible. Understanding how pectin works and how making apricot jam is different from making strawberry jam. How do we gain this mastery today? Possibly, we have a family recipe and technique passed down. Maybe we have an endless supply of ingredients and patience to persevere until we master the art. When all else fails, I guess we have YouTube! Let’s be honest - for most of us, it’s not that easy to master making jam.

If there’s equipment and tools

Our final ‘if’, but you may have more - is to think of what we actually require to physically make the jam. A kitchen equipped with whatever we need to make jam and a collection of empty jars and lids. Possibly the easiest of all the ‘ifs’ or possibly not, depending on circumstances. It’s certainly not a modern-day given.

So in what circumstances is there anything easy about making jam?

The only ‘easy’ I can see is in the output of abundance. Stirring one pot of free fruit, with donated sugar, because we’re in a chill mood and feel like making jam for fun… In these conditions it means we can multiply the bulk of berries or plums or apricots and make jars and jars of jam. Jars to be stored. Jars to be eaten. Jars to be gifted. Jars to be sold. Jars to be left over once everyone has had their share.

Abundance according to Jesus

Jesus told stories about abundance and he carried out acts of great abundance called miracles. Arguably, the most well-known miracle is about a small boy’s lunch. When Jesus blessed it and shared it out, it fed thousands of people. Even more surprising was that there were baskets of food left over. All it took was a little boy sharing his five loaves and two fish. A miracle of generosity and abundance. This is the miracle children are told first. It’s supposed to be easy to understand. A lunch. A crowd. A need. A miracle maker. A solution.

As adults we can hear this miracle, and put it tidily into a basket marked, ‘easy to understand’. But how easy is abundance to understand? And if we can contemplate having abundance, how easy is it to contemplate sharing it? How do we take our own ‘nothing’ or ‘small offerings’ and do something meaningful and worthwhile with it? How easy is it for us to give from what we have now, rather than think about what we might give when we have availability of resource, time, motivation, energy and equipment?

The little boy’s lunch is a symbol, not just for children, who share a common age with the little boy, but for all of us, who share the need for food with the little boy, the disciples, Jesus and the crowd. We do understand what it means to eat lunch. We do understand what it might mean if a crowd turned up at our house for lunch and the cupboards are empty because grocery day is the next day. But the solution - that is not easy!

Jesus looked up. He saw a large crowd of people who were coming towards him. He said to Philip, ‘Where can we buy enough bread to feed all these people?’ Jesus himself already knew what he would do. But he asked Philip this question because he wanted to know what Philip would say. Philip answered, ‘A man could work for eight months to get 200 silver coins. But he still would not have enough money to buy bread for all these people. There would not be enough bread for each person here to have even a little piece.’ Then Andrew, another one of Jesus’ disciples, spoke. He was Simon Peter’s brother. He said to Jesus, ‘Here is a boy who has five small loaves and two fish. But that will certainly not be enough food for so many people.’

Jesus said, ‘Tell the people to sit down.’ There was plenty of grass in that place, so the people sat down. There were about 5,000 men in the crowd. Jesus took the loaves of bread and he thanked God for them. Then he broke the loaves into pieces. He passed them to all the people who were sitting there. Everyone had as much bread as they wanted to eat. Jesus did the same with the fish. When everyone had eaten enough food, Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Do not waste anything. Pick up all the little bits of food that people have not eaten.’ So the disciples picked up all the pieces. They filled 12 baskets with the bits of bread that the people had not eaten.

John 6:5-13

EasyEnglish Bible Copyright © MissionAssist 2019 - Charitable Incorporated Organisation 1162807. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Meaning

Money earned with very little effort or work implying doing something that takes minimal effort but results in a high-value reward.

Prayer

Open a pot of jam. Take a clean spoon and scoop out a spoonful to eat.

Consider all the processes that have gone into making the jam.

Consider by contrast how easy it was to open the jam and eat a spoonful.

Consider something in your life that should appear on the surface as being easy, but digging deeper reveals something complicated and difficult.

Give this situation, event, relationship or issue to God in prayer.

You might like to make a piece of toast or spread jam on a fresh slice of bread and eat as you pray.

• Taste the jam and pray - God, I want to give you…

  • Talk to God about this issue in your life that appears easy but is not easy at all.

  • Invite God to walk alongside you as you confront the challenges and costs of navigating this situation or issue.

  • Invite clarity on this situation and pray for insight and peace.

Consider how easy or difficult it is to give from what we have, rather than thinking about giving from what we might have in the future.

Consider what abundance might look like if given to someone else.

Give your thinking about abundance to God in prayer.

You might like to make a piece of toast or spread jam on a fresh slice of bread and eat as you pray.

• Taste the jam and pray - God, I want to give abundantly…

  • Talk to God about your understanding of abundance.

  • Invite God to show you someone you can give something to, not out of your excess, but out of what you genuinely have to offer.

If you’re using this prayer in a group setting

Serve fresh bread with pots of jam. Set up stations with slices of fresh bread and different jam options for people to select. Invite participants to move to a station and spread jam on a slice of bread and eat it while praying this prayer.

What do you think about this saying? Have you ever tried to make jam? Are you in the jam-making is easy camp? What about the little boy’s lunch - how easy is it to give abundantly? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments or hit reply to this post and email me. I will reply to all emails… even if it takes me a few days to get back to you!

My thoughts…

My paternal grandparents would always say, “Let’s have a cup of tea,” whenever anything required thinking over or talking through. My grandmother was English and tea drinking was a ritual they enjoyed by the clock multiple times a day. Yet there was always time for one more cup, should someone stop by with something to share or seek advice about. I’m sure my grandmother believed anything could be resolved over a cup of tea.

When my daughter and I have something we want to talk through, we extend this idea to, “Let’s have a cup of tea and a piece of cake.” There’s something about cake! We spent a few months together in Singapore where eating cake in the afternoon was quite the thing to do and we still enjoy finding time on a weekend or day off to have tea and cake together.

Cake is prepared and eaten the world over in many different forms. In Germany, Kaffee und Kuchen (Coffee and Cake) is a social ritual, where cake and conversation take place somewhere between 3pm and 5pm. I catch up with my German friend for lunch once a month and we always choose somewhere to eat where she can buy a piece of cake to take to visit her mother immediately afterwards. Her mother maintains the practice at least once a week of enjoying Kaffee und Kuchen with her daughter. Here in Aotearoa New Zealand, cafes are more inclined to serve a morning coffee and muffin, with almost all the cafes on the Whangaparāoa Peninsula, where I live, closing by 2pm.

Cake recipe books always sell well, and a search for a cake recipe on the internet will generate thousands of possibilities. Making a cake requires at least the ability to follow a recipe, having the right ingredients and equipment and having the time to bake. These things are not always in abundance in our contemporary culture. Which is where the saying, ‘A piece of cake’, seems to almost say the opposite of the likely intention.

How easy is a piece of cake?

When something is as easy as a piece of cake, does this mean the cake is easy to eat or easy to bake? Easy to source the ingredients for the cake? How does that sit with the price of eggs? Is accessing cake as easy as making a piece of toast? As a sweet treat, cake is wonderful but if it were something eaten daily, wouldn’t cake become less special? There was probably a time when people did eat cake daily. My maternal grandparents always had their baking tins full. Three tins: one for cake, one for biscuits or cookies and one for a slice. Cake in our house, when baked, is followed by inviting someone over to eat it with us, or for my daughter and I to sit and talk, read, craft or watch something together.

I find the idiom, ‘A piece of cake’ a little bit curious. Life isn’t a piece of cake. It’s hard work. Having a piece of cake seems to me, to be about taking a pause from the challenges of daily life. It’s about savouring something enjoyable in a leisurely way. Giving myself time and space to process, to share with others and to acknowledge that life isn’t always sweet and easy.

The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse

I view cake more like the way the Mole in Charlie Mackesy’s book, The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse views cake.

“If at first you don’t succeed, have some cake.’
‘I see. Does it work?’
‘Every time.’”

-Charlie Mackesy, The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse

The mole loves cake. In talking about cake, he makes cake the circuit breaker, the pause between life challenges. Charlie Mackesy said in an interview about why the Mole was a central character for him in his story, “The mole is quite comical, particularly his hunger; it’s important to me to have lightness in a book, to have real honesty. While you’re discussing big things it’s important to have funny things with it. It seems right that the mole is always interrupting their profound conversations with his desire for cake.”

In another interview about his latest book, Always Remember, Charlie explains the significance of cake:

Charlie Mackesy is a beautiful writer who believes showing love and kindness are the most important things we can ever do or achieve. This delightful interview with the BBC captures his humility and his attitude to kindness and is well worth a watch.

Jesus on Love and Kindness

Jesus was big on love and kindness. And as ‘simple’ as it might sound to show love and kindness to others, it’s no ‘piece of cake’. It’s not easy, especially if the others we’re showing kindness to aren’t very nice people. Time and again, Jesus talked to his disciples about this issue. Today, if we’re honest, we too struggle with showing love and kindness to strangers, to our enemies, to people who are so different from us.

Jesus told the story of a man, travelling from Jerusalem to Jericho. He was attacked by robbers, who beat him up and left him lying beside the road. Two people walked past him, and crossed to the other side. The third man stopped. He looked after the immediate needs of the man who’d been beaten, at some personal cost and effort to himself. He took care of his ongoing needs too. It was his kindness that saved the man. Jesus told his listeners to go and do the same.

The story as I’ve just told it stands - being kind is important. But Jesus had another message in the story, that we don’t always pick up on. Of the three men, the third, a Samaritan, a despised enemy of the Jews, was the most unlikely candidate to offer kindness. The other two men, the first a priest and the second a religious assistant, were people more likely to offer kindness to someone in need. For whatever reason, this wasn’t easy for them.

You can read the whole parable in Luke 10:25-37

He said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’

-Matthew 22:37-39 (NRSVUE)

Cake and Kindness

If showing kindness was easy, wouldn’t the world be a different place! How many conflicts would be avoided, how many tensions defused, how many people protected from harm? If only showing kindness was as easy as the saying ‘a piece of cake’ intends to suggest. Showing and receiving kindness might be as delicious as eating cake, but kindness is not as easy to offer as it might appear.

We might see ourselves as the good Samaritan, but for sure we’ve had more times than we’d like to count when we’ve been the priest and the religious assistant in the story Jesus told. We might view the Mole’s interruptions about cake into deep philosophical discussions as lightweight intrusions on big life stuff, but perhaps the Mole’s take on cake is more profound and meaningful than it appears at first glance.

Meaning

A piece of cake means completing something that is very easy to do.

Prayer

Make or buy a cake. If you decide to bake a cake, turn the process into a slow reflective prayerful experience.

Consider your current life challenges. Life is not easy.

Consider how easy it is to offer kindness to others. You may want to reflect on recent kindnesses shown to you and how it feels to be on the receiving end of genuine kindness. You may want to reflect on what it means to have God’s kindness in your life.

You may want to pray as you bake.

You might like to invite someone to share your cake with you.
You might talk together about kindness or you may simply be present with each other.

You might invite your friend to pray with you, or you may complete this prayer silently while you eat cake.

• Eat a bite of cake and silently pray - God, Life is not easy…

  • Talk to God about the things that are not easy in your life.

  • Talk to God about kindness, give thanks for God’s kindness and for the kindness of others towards you'.

  • Invite God to show you someone you can offer kindness to in the next few hours or days.

If you’re using this prayer in a group setting

Serve cake! This is an easy prayer to share in a group setting. Set up a table with cake for people to help themselves or pass around paper plates with a piece of cake, a fork and a serviette.

What do you think about this saying? How easy is it to offer and receive kindness? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments or hit reply to this post and email me. I will reply to all emails… even if it takes me a few days to get back to you!

My thoughts…

The origin of today’s idiom yet again dates back in time, before the industrial revolution, when the routines of daily life were at the mercy of the rhythms of the sun. Work was carried out in the light and sleep happened in the darkness. Before the days of flipping a switch to illuminate the space, a lamp filled with oil was lit, lighting the night and providing the carrier an opportunity to keep working in the darkness.

Oil-filled Lamps

Jesus shared a story about what the kingdom of heaven is like. He told about ten young women carrying oil-filled lamps to join a marriage party. The five wise young women took extra oil with them to a wedding, so they were prepared for any delay, while the five silly young women had to leave the wedding when their oil ran out to go and get extra oil. When they returned, they were denied entry. The story Jesus tells is about being prepared for God’s involvement in the lives of his followers. Jesus ends with the words, ‘So you must watch carefully. You do not know on what day or at what time I will return.’

Say the words Midnight Oil to me and I’m pulled back to being a teenager in 1987 where my bedroom was right next to our family bathroom. My fifteen-year-old brother could sing loudly, if not beautifully, and singing in the shower was a joy to him. He’d shower really late at night or very early in the morning… often when I was trying to sleep. His favourite song then, and possibly ever, was sung on high rotate… leading me to wonder how I could possibly sleep while he was singing?

How can we dance when our earth is turnin’?

How do we sleep while our beds are burnin’?

-Lyrics from ‘Beds are Burning’ written by Midnight Oil

Midnight Worries

Sleep isn’t always easy for me. I’m inclined to get carried away on a creative project, especially in the hours of darkness. I used to be a night person, writing well past the midnight hour. On those rare moments as a teenager when I upended my sleep cycle and wrote early, I’d prefer the freshness of a new day, but inevitably I’d return to burning the midnight oil. In more recent years, I’ve dug in deep to early morning writing, and depending on the season I’m often up before the birds, but not before my daughter’s cat who tries to push me out of bed each morning at 5am so I can get writing.

If I’m going to get up so early, I have to go to bed at 9pm. One thing I can’t afford is to wake in the night and start ruminating. I have worked hard on strategies to force me to go back to sleep when those dreaded middle of the night waking moments occur. Why is it that troubles magnify in our minds in the wee small hours of the morning? It’s one thing to worry about problems we can control, but quite another to worry about those big things that are outside of our influence. That’s not to say we should ignore the big things. But it’s not worrying that shifts the dial on big issues - it’s doing something. And I can’t do something if I haven’t had enough sleep.

The unknown hymn writer of the song ‘Give me Oil’ or ‘Sing Hosanna’ wrote of the need to have oil in the lamp to get through the long night.

Give me oil in my lamp, keep me burning
Give me oil in my lamp, I pray
Give me oil in my lamp, keep me burning
Keep me burning 'til the break of day
Sing Hosanna, sing Hosanna
Sing Hosanna to the King of Kings

-Lyrics from ‘Give me oil in my Lamp’

A Ballad for the Ages

When Midnight Oil wrote their hit song, Beds are Burning, they wrote from a place of passionate energy and a response to injustice. It was a land rights song, geographically specific to the outback of Australia and drawing attention to the health standards and living conditions, of displaced Aboriginal communities. The song was a massive hit. It took some time, but for sure it played a part in drawing attention, raising awareness and softening attitudes. However, big structural change still has a long way to go. This is the same for Indigenous cultures the world over. There’s a movement towards change but it’s a slow burn.

Midnight Oil did something about their worries. Their song was a ballad for the ages about injustice, but in thinking about burning oil, my mind turns to recent world events where injustice is spilling over and it isn’t just midnight oil that is burning.

The Cost of Injustice

Why do people do horrible things to other people? And why do they invoke God’s name to inflict cruelty and terror on others? We can’t open a newsfeed without reading or seeing something about violence in the Middle East. A strange, unhinged war that seems to be driven by greed. Greed for power and greed for oil. Bombed oil fields have been literally burning. I have Iranian friends, some Muslim, some Christian. I know they’re not sleeping at night right now. They have loved ones still living back in Iran. They are rightly worried.

Apart from the anxiety of petrol supply issues and the rising cost of putting food on the table, this problem is huge yet distant to me. I can’t afford to lose sleep over it. I can’t burn the midnight oil - because nothing I think can change these events. What can we do when world events push us into a place where we can’t sleep at night, when our brains can’t handle anything more, when our hearts are so heavy that it impacts our mood and behaviour? Burning the midnight oil, staying up late and ruminating isn’t helpful to us or to those we worry about. These tips from Mental Health Foundation of New Zealand offer a great pathway. They end with this lovely statement.

Fuel for the Faithful

We come to hope. Hope is the fuel that ignites my writing passion. Hope provides the energy that keeps me getting up each day. It’s the beacon that lights my path in the darkness. Hope in the presence of God, Hope even in the darkest days.

How can we dance when our earth is turning? How can we sleep when our beds are burning? What can we do when we’re confronted with such overwhelming big things outside of our control that they keep us sleepless at night and force us to burn the midnight oil? How does our energy stay filled so we’re ready for whatever the day might bring and to meet whoever God might guide in front of our paths? We need oil in our own lamps to keep us burning.

We can turn to our all-loving, hope-giving God in prayer.

Meaning

Working or studying late into the night.

Prayer

Find a battery-powered camping lantern or a candle or other source of light that can be turned on and off as required. Create a darkened space. Sit in the darkness for a few moments with your thoughts.

Keep the light turned off

Let your thoughts wander to the things that are worrying you right now. Acknowledge these worries as being valid and real but also acknowledge any that are too big for you to do anything about except worry. It’s these big things we want to give to God in prayer.

Switch on the light

In a few simple words, voice your thoughts to God.

• Sit in the darkness and begin your prayer with the words - God, here are my worries…

  • Talk to God about these worries, the things that are keeping you awake at night or feel outside of your control or influence

• Turn on the light and say the words - God, I invite you to…

  • Invite God’s hope to be at work in you, to help you focus on things you can control in your immediate surroundings; a person who needs some encouragement or an act of kindness, a little thing that you can tend to that might make a difference in the lives of someone else.

• Look at the light and end your prayer with the words - Give me oil in my lamp to keep me burning…

If you’re using this prayer in a group setting

Darken the meeting space as completely as possible. Before your gathering, place battery powered handheld torches at the end of each row or under one seat at each table.

Begin the prayer by asking the group to sit in the darkness and reflect on their worries. Ask the person nearest to the torch to turn it on, pray silently, inviting God’s hope and then pass the torch to the next person. End the prayer by singing together the song, Give me oil in my lamp keep me burning.

What’s troubling you today? What big world events feel just too much? How does the hope that comes from God shift the dial for you? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments or hit reply to this post and email me. I will reply to all emails… even if it takes me a few days to get back to you!

My thoughts…

Resurrection Sunday. Today we celebrate the Risen Christ. In churches and communities around the world the festivities take many forms, but foremost in every celebration is the recognition of the One. Jesus Christ. Son of God.

One.

Yet the interpretation of the Resurrection and the impact on our Christian faith can be as varied as the types of eggs hunted and stockpiled this Sunday all over the world. Depending on upbringing, tradition, culture and belief systems, our view of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ may very likely differ from our neighbour.

The idea of One sounds so simple, yet is so complex.

Don’t put all your eggs in one basket, is wisdom for the ages. If we put all our energy, focus, skills, resources, care and love into one thing, one person, one project… we risk losing everything if that ‘thing’ collapses or lets us down. We see this wisdom in relationships… it’s not healthy to have just one person as our only person. We see it in how we spend our time… if we only work and never play, we’ll burn out. We see it in what we eat…. survive only on chocolate - we’ll get sick! (Something to remember this chocolate coated Sunday!)

And here’s the Resurrection Sunday conundrum… we follow the One. What does this mean? Is there One way?

Is it good to put all our eggs in One basket? And how do we figure out what that basket is supposed to be?

If there’s only One egg and One basket how does it explain how so many of us the world over, celebrate in unique and diverse ways? Is our own way of following the One, right, therefore making everyone else wrong? Or are we wrong, and someone out there has the One right answer?

On Resurrection Sunday we aren’t just reminded of our own, individual, unique relationship with God, but instead we are pulled into an appreciation of what One faith life means… a life of carrying each other, welcoming and celebrating differences and doing the best we can to follow the ways of Jesus Christ, as individuals and together as God’s people.

Today, of all days, we get to put all our eggs in One basket with joyful abundance and delight.

Meaning

Don’t concentrate all your energy, efforts and resources into one project or person

Prayer

Hold a wrapped foil egg in your hand. Let it nestle in your hands. Contemplate this single egg.

One egg.

God’s great plan was Jesus. For the whole world. But also for each One of us.

Let your thoughts wander to where your current energies and interests lie. Visualise these things as eggs being carefully placed into one basket. If you’ve gathered eggs today as part of an Easter Egg treasure hunt, use these eggs as physical props in your reflection. Are your priorities balanced? What would happen if you gave your eggs to God to carry?

In a few simple words, voice your thoughts to God.

• Begin your prayer with the words - God, I give you my basket of eggs…

  • Talk to God about all the things that are important to you right now, the things weighing you down, the things exhilarating you, the people you’re surrounding yourself with and the priorities you’re letting lead your attention and resources. Give everything to the One and be prepared for God to show you how to share out what you have with others.

End your prayer by unwrapping your egg and acknowledging the richness of God.

If you’re using this prayer in a group setting

Hand around baskets filled with foil wrapped eggs and invite each person to take one egg and hold onto it as you introduce the prayer. Once the prayer has been shared, invite people to unwrap and eat their egg.

Be aware of food allergies and dietary requirements when sharing eggs with others.

What’s in your basket today? How many eggs have you placed in there? How do you see yourself following the One? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments or hit reply to this post and email me. I will reply to all emails… even if it takes me a few days to get back to you!

My thoughts…

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I think of this saying every time I spill ANYTHING! I’m a spiller… too busy talking or making to take notice of what’s immediately in front of me.

The Mil…

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This month in our Virtual Prayer Room our prayers are about happiness. Scientific research into emotions is complicated with many different theories. One theory is that some emotion…

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In our Virtual Prayer Room our prayers are about contentment. In Aoteraoa New Zealand we have started our celebration of Matariki. When the star cluster Matariki rises in the winter…

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In our Virtual Prayer Room our prayers are about contentment. In Aoteraoa New Zealand we have started our celebration of Matariki. When the star cluster Matariki rises in the winter…

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In our Virtual Prayer Room our prayers are about contentment. In Aoteraoa New Zealand we have started our celebration of Matariki. When the star cluster Matariki rises in the winter…

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This month in our Virtual Prayer Room our prayers are about contentment. In Aoteraoa New Zealand we will shortly start the celebration of Matariki. This year Matariki begins on 7th of June and ends on 13th of July. The public holiday celebration will be held on Friday 20th June. When the star cluster Matariki rises in the winter sky, in the Māori calendar, it marks the beginning of the new year. Matariki has historically been a time for whānau to come together to acknowledge the year that has been and make preparations and plans for the year ahead. It’s a time of remembrance and reflection, gratitude and hope. Our prayers throughout June will be suitable for Matariki celebrations as well as fitting with this month’s theme of contentment. For those subscribers who are based in other parts of the world, our June prayers will be adaptable to your own places and seasons.

Each week, two prayers will be shared on the following Matariki themes:

1 June - Matariki mā Puanga - Celebrating together - Inclusion & embracing diversity and celebrating Matariki together

8 June - Matariki Hunga Nui - Remembrance - Honouring those we have lost since the last rising of Matariki.

15 June - Matariki Ahunga Nui - Celebrating the Present - Gathering together to give thanks for what we have.

22 June - Matariki Manako Nui - Looking to the Future - Looking forward to the promise of a new year.

You can read our full year 2025 Virtual Prayer room in this post.

Paid subscribers have access to all previous posts. The first post of each month is free to all, and the rest of the series for each month is behind our paywall.

Matariki mā Puanga

In 2025, the theme for Matariki is Matariki mā Puanga - Celebrating together.

The following extract comes from the official Matariki website and explains more about the Matariki theme this year:

Matariki mā Puanga means Matariki (Pleiades) and Puanga (Rigel) and this phrase acknowledges the relationship between these stars. Both Matariki and Puanga rise in the eastern sky before the sun during the winter period, however some tribes and regions of the country look to Puanga instead of Matariki as the main marker of the New Year.

While the stars that mark the beginning of the New Year may vary in some regions the themes that underpin the ceremony and celebration are the same. We acknowledge our past, celebrate the present and look forward to a bright and prosperous future. The phrase Matariki mā Puanga is essentially a reminder that regardless of our different backgrounds, origins, and practices we use this celebration to come together and share the many unique elements that shape our identity.

• The 2025 theme of Matariki mā Puanga is all about inclusion, embracing diversity and celebrating Matariki together

• Matariki and Puanga are stars that sit in the night sky together to signal the start ofthe Māori new year for different iwi.

• Matariki mā Puanga acknowledges and embraces the different traditions, stars and tikanga around celebrating the Māori New Year, recognising the regional variations

• We can all connect to the core values of Matariki and Puanga and embrace the diverse ways for marking the new year
  
  Mātauranga (traditional knowledge) is not held by one person in one place – it is held by many people across the motu. We can all play a part in learning and sharing mātauranga so that regional Matariki or Puanga traditions thrive for generations.
  
  The Puanganui website shares kōrero tuku iho (traditional stories) about Puanga from the perspective of Te Taiuru – the iwi of Taranaki, Whanganui and Rangitīkei.

The contentment of inclusivity

Celebrating together with others is a beautiful way of exploring and enjoying the richness of diversity of other people’s experiences. Embracing another persons viewpoint or perspective invites us to grow deeper in our understanding of God’s people everywhere. There is contentment to be found in being seen and understood. To exclude others on the basis of some form of difference creates so much damage and is so unneccessary. God does not elevate any person above others, and cares for all people everywhere. The pathway to inclusivity isn’t easy but it brings so much contentment to those who are included and those who offer inclusivity. Conversely, to exclude others on the basis of being different to ourselves causes harm to both us and to those we exclude. As followers of Jesus we should be leading the charge of inclusivity.

Let’s begin in prayer

Our two prayers today pick up some of the imagery of the night sky and the place of inclusivity in our faith practices.

Night Sky Prayer

Wear clothes suitable for the season and head outdoors to look at the night sky. Try to get away from artificial light so you have a clear view of the stars. Look upwards. Spend a few minutes being absorbed in the experience. When you’re ready reflect on the enormity of God’s love for our world, and the inclusivity of God’s love that crosses all boundaries and divides. Pray for compassion for those you know, including yourself, who are excluded in any way. Pray for yourself that you would be someone who strives to love those in the world as God loves everyone.

You’ll need:

• A night sky with not too many clouds

Hints for individuals: Head outdoors when it’s a clear starry night

Hints for groups: Introduce this prayer as one your gathered group can pray when they’re in their own space on a starry night.

Torchlight Prayer

Lighting our pathway forward provides direction. A torchlight or flashlight doesn’t provide enough light for a wide view. Instead, it’s focussed and it leads us very directly right in front of where we’re walking. We might move our flashlight around us, seeking to see what is beyond our sight, but the light can’t reveal too much. Go outside on a dark night and let your torchlight guide your path. As you shine your torch and illuminate a very clear direction immediately in front of you, offer your worries and concerns to God about your own life direction. Invite God to help you diffuse the worries that are big and beyond your control. Invite God to work with you on what is immediately in front of you. Find contentment in being free to contemplate only what you can see, rather than all that worries you.

You’ll need:

• Torch/flashlight

• Dark night sky

Hints for individuals: You don’t need to go far for this prayer. Sit on your front doorstep and shine your torch on your path or driveway.

Hints for groups: This is likely to be another take home prayer, unless you’re planning a night time gathering. Hand out cards in the shape of a flashlight for people to pray this prayer in their own time.

All Scripture quotations are taken from THE MESSAGE, copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

In this month’s Virtual Prayer Room we explore the concept of delight. Read more about our theme this month in our first edition for the month.

Each week, two prayers will be shared on t…

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