Dear Friends
As I write this letter I am also packing to walk the Camino Ingles – a 117.1km
walk from Ferrol to Santiago de Compostela in NW Spain! The guidebook
states that backpacks should be as light as possible – around 8 kg or less – and
that really isn’t much stuff! I’m having to really think about what’s important –
what’s definitely going to be of use rather that what I simply might want to
take with me. It’s not easy!
This act of having to pack sparingly and wisely for a journey has helped me to
reflect on how much unnecessary stuff I might be carrying through the journey
of my life – particularly in terms of my possessions. We can become so
attached to them and they can demand so much of us in terms of cleaning,
moving, maintaining, updating, insuring, replacing… our possessions can
posses us.
‘Look at the birds of the air,’ says Jesus, ‘they neither sow nor reap nor gather
into barns.’ This business of not gathering into barns is a theme throughout
the scriptures because stuff, however much of it we might try to buy and
possess, cannot satisfy the deepest reaches of the human heart. Yet we keep
on buying more and more stuff.
Now don’t get me wrong – I do like stuff – and especially at times of
celebration, and for improving comfort and efficiency (particularly when doing
a very long walk!) and making life easier. But what the story of the crib to the
cross really shows us is that some stuff lasts, and some stuff does not. Part of
the point of being a Christian is that we celebrate and appreciate the
difference – otherwise we will simply be left feeling empty, even though our
houses are full.
Yours in Christ,
Simon