From Rev Jo Allen

 

The Sun is here, and has hopefully, by now, settled in for the next few months. Everything is just so much better in the sunshine isn’t it, even the most menial tasks come with joy when the sun beams through the window.

 

But we can sometimes feel like we don’t match the season, and even when the sun is out, it’s not in our lives. It can be tricky when the world around us is bouncy and buoyant and we feel flat.

I’ve been reading Job in the Bible, a character who knows a thing or two about feeling flat! Job loses everything, and his friends try to explain why this has happened to him, but he knows that they have unsound reasoning, and so Job tells them where to go.

 

Job also let’s God know how he feels. Here’s one of Job’s angry moments when talking to God; he knows he’s done nothing wrong and yet everything bad keeps on happening to him, ‘So what’s this all about, anyway--this compulsion to dig up some dirt, to find some skeleton in my closet?’ He is honest about what he is experiencing with God.

 

I have a few similar lines, this one comes out in its various forms depending on the situation: ‘I know you exist, but this world is in a mess and if you are supposed to be in charge I don’t like you.’ Faith isn’t about having all the right words or suppressing our doubts—it’s about bringing our whole, unfiltered selves before God.

 

When we feel out of step with the season—when the sun shines but does not warm us, I’ve found honesty with God to be a helpful tonic. Why not give it a go?

 

God bless,

Jo