Rhythms of packing and unpacking
Lucy Holt
Our family have just returned from a wonderful week away at Ashburnham Together. There are piles of laundry and camping equipment everywhere. You will probably hear more from all of us who went to this holiday over the coming weeks, the central verse we looked at was this from Matthew:
“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me — watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”
Matthew 11: 28-30 (MSG)
The theme was brilliant for me, as I've been learning different rhythms in work and rest recently. The holiday gave me a wonderful space to develop, practice and discuss the same things I have been reading and reflecting about already. There is so much to chose from to write about today.
So I am going to start with one simple and immediate thing: the rhythm of packing and unpacking as we move between seasons in life.
On the final evening at Ashburnham, the speaker compared the rhythm of a holiday to Christmas: the anticipation, planning and preparation before; the wonder and excitement of the day(s) having finally arrived and unwrapping the good things you have been given; the gratitude, tidying up and possibly some sadness as you move on to the next thing.
This resonated with me and there are seasons like this for all of us, in work, home, friendships and family life. Often moving objects around and physically packing up, bringing in or clearing out can bring surprising emotions as we are forced to notice the emotional and relational changes in life.
A friend of mine had been putting off clearing out a cupboard in her dining room filled with craft activities. In the end she recognised this was because she felt sad to recognise that her teenagers were past this stage, and it meant accepting there were craft sets she had never managed to find time to do.
In Matthew 10 Jesus tells His disciples to take very little with them in their first goings to tell people about God's kingdom. Where people aren't aligned with their message, the disciples are instructed to shake the dust off their sandals as they leave a town. There is a time to let go of things and stick to the absolute core of what we need.
At the opposite end, when the people of Israel are in the wilderness, they take great care and attention to move the tablets recording the ten commandments with them and later have a hugely elaborate movable tabinacle to physically represent bringing God's presence with them. Earlier when they leave Egypt they take with them gold from their neighbours, but not yeast in their bread.
The symbolism is complicated, but the idea that sometimes we should take things with us and sometimes let go is reflected in Ecclesiastes:
“There is a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and time to throw away.”
Ecclesiastes 3: 6
I hope you have all had a good time in the summer, whether you have packed up & travelled near or far, or if you have stayed in your normal rhythm of home life. You could ask God which things he is asking you to take with you or leave behind as we head into the Autumn. I will be thinking about this while I move the camping equipment back to the attic!
