Walk 1

Date: 06 June 2010 15:21:44

I was thinking the other day that I seem to be better at having time out to connect with God when I go somewhere, where there are less distractions, where the amazing beauty of God’s creation is evident. But how do we connect with god where we are, how do we find that space right where we are. It’s easy(er) to go for a walk and meditate on God when we’re out in the countryside, but what about finding that space and connecting with God in the city, how do we “retreat” in any form in the city. I decided today, to see what happened if I went for a walk to help me to connect with God, something I find useful when out in the countryside, but what about in the city?
The first thing that struck me was that when out in the countryside my first reaction is to praise God, whereas in the city my automatic response was to pray for the different situations. I’m not saying this is a bad thing, but the point of the walk was to concentrate on who God is, and to worship him. I got to a park about half an hour away and sat enjoying the greenery and decided that I need to chill it wasn’t about what I did or didn’t do, it was about God not me. I then wandered along by the river towards the station and found this amazing picture. I just looked at it and thought about 3 separate and distinct colours that are still separate but all need the other to make up the picture, which to me was a visual representation of the Trinity. It just struck me as useful to my thinking, and added a new little piece on to my understanding.
The other thing that set me thinking was that as I walked up through the city centre the Orange Walk came through. The reactions of those in the city centre was quiet interesting. There were a few obvious visitors who looked very puzzled and were obviously asking each other, What on earth is going on? The vast majority carried on as if it wasn’t there, with a few stopping to watch, I did here one person say to a small tot, you’ll be doing that when your bigger. I wondered how much this mirrored peoples reaction to the church? Most people ignoring it as irrelevant, while a few are totally puzzled by the church.