When I hear the words ‘efficiency
savings’, I have to admit that my hackles rise. I do not believe that life is
meant to be ‘efficient’, it’s meant to be lived. Now you might wonder what this
has to do with a ‘thought for Lent.’ I would say a great deal. Lent is a 40 day
preparation (excluding Sundays!) for Easter. It’s a time of waiting before in
effect the new life of spring and Easter arrives. Waiting is something that we English
are very good at: we queue, we sit in traffic jams and we wait for someone
human to finally answer the telephone! We are good at it, but by and large we
don’t enjoy it. We think that waiting is a waste of time, we become impatient;
it’s inefficient we cry.
One problem we have with waiting
is that we live in a culture of demands. We expect fast food, superfast
internet and instant information from the beloved (if tax avoiding) google! In a
perfect mechanised world there would be no waiting… it’d be all arrival. But
when life is all about arriving, without any ‘inefficient’ waiting and
preparation, few of us seem to realise or indeed appreciate where we actually
are.
Nature on the other hand ‘naturally’
makes us wait. One can plant a carrot instantly, but there is little point picking
it until it’s grown. One can make a baby fairly quickly but it takes 9 months
or indeed a lifetime to become a parent.
There are so many areas of life
that this principle applies to. I recently visited Southmead hospital on a
Sunday evening. The place was asleep. Oh yes there were staff quietly going
about their business of caring for others, but it felt to me as if the whole
place was having a rest, taking a breath before the frenetic activity of
healthcare resumed on Monday morning. Is this inefficient, or is this a
necessary breather for everyone. It reminded me that the God of the Hebrews in
his ‘wisdom’ spoke of the need for land, animals and people to have a weekly day
of rest. How inefficient: how absolutely delightfully wonderful!
(Ref inefficiency in healthcare… it is salutary to note that
according to most doctors I know, the greatest inefficiency is down to not
enough beds left for people after treatment. A problem caused by shrinking bed
numbers, because this was more ‘efficient!’)
So back to Lent and waiting or
preparing for the reminder of new life at Easter. The Christian stream that I
now most closely associate with is Celtic. It came to these Islands along the
sea channels around 350AD. It didn’t bring Christianity as a religion; it brought
a way of life, of love. One idea that I treasure is taken from the tides, the
ebb and flow: as the sea rushes in there is great activity, as it ebbs there is
a time for rest. This natural rhythm is mirrored each day and each night. I
believe it’s there too in the seasonal waiting of lent, which ends of course
with a further ‘inefficient’ paradox: the death, the lying ‘resting’ in a tomb
of the one I believe is Saviour of the world. In this case just as rest is a
prelude to work, so death is a prelude to life: a bursting forth of love that
not even ‘inefficient’ death can defeat. So my advice this March is to take
some ‘inefficient’ rest, so that you will discover how to truly find a life
that is a joy in the living.
This March we celebrate Easter on the 25th and 27th. Your local churches
would love to welcome you.
Stephen Newell
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