''Please stop the merry-go-round, it's making me sick' - Weekly Reflection 15th June 2025

I don’t know if you can make it out on these photos, but this is a picture of one of my ‘Father’s Day cards from our grandchildren, James and William.  I got some equally lovely ones from Kerryn, Lowenna and Isla.

However, the one from the boys is a card hand-made by their mum, our daughter.

And although I am not the best when it comes to DIY I was pleased with the front section of a raised vegie bed. (Picture below) The planks on the front had come loose and some had rotted. I could have gone down the road and bought some more planks.  However, I had several pallets and so I set about sawing and making up a front for the raised vegie patch. (Still to be put in place, another job to be done)

Where am I going with all of this?

Well, yes I have been listening to podcasts as I take a morning run or cycle ride. One of those podcasts was from ‘Leaving Egypt’ series. These are a conversation with presenters Al Roxburgh and Jenny Sinclair and a leading thinker or practitioner who is endeavouring to navigate through the complexities and the ‘unravelling’ of so much of our common life that has hitherto grounded us. Noting that everything is in a state of flux and at times it appears we are sailing rudderless and in danger of being shipwrecked.

You can check out the podcast here  - ‘A new kind of humanism’ – Susannah Black Roberts.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/1SRBibaQToHevpQU2AycgT?si=bf9cd479198946eb

Susannah discusses the development of A1 and asks the question about the new technology making humans redundant.  This isn’t sci-fi as already plans are well underway to begin operating driverless taxis in some cities.  Lorries, buses and trains could soon follow. It is also possible for A1 to create music, to write essays and sermons, to paint and to do a whole range of tasks in a way far advanced on what humans may achieve, so why settle for second best. Let’s hand everything over and sit back and enjoy the ride, in some cases, literally.

However, Susannah argues that if we do we are in danger of loosing something unique about humans. Back to the card made by my daughter. Set against the ones manufactured and bought it is inferior. And yet it has an intrinsic value because it has been hand-crafted and designed by a creative mind.

We may have guest coming around for a meal and the easiest option is to buy something ready-made, or even a ‘buy in’ cooked by professionals.

And there are times when this is the right choice. However, in so doing have we not abrogated something of the joy and pleasure of cooking a nice pie that may not be as nice and round and perfect as one shop bought, but it is home made.

We are in danger at everything becoming commodified, everything becoming transactional, everything becoming a deal that can be done.

We can’t of course put the genie back in the bottle and we stand in a similar place to those who lived through the agricultural revolution and the industrial revolution as we now live through a technological revolution  whose impact will be just a wide and far reaching.

It would be naïve to become techno Luddites.

However, we can be mindful, and thoughtful and ask questions. And above all we can take a regular technological fast. Leave the phone alone for 24 hours or at least reduce using it, bake that cake, make that pie, write that poem, play with the children, tell stories, go for a walk.

And should we need a guide to help us then we have a rich heritage within the Christian tradition. We have the model of Jesus we could seek to follow. We see Jesus withdrawing to a ‘lonely place’ and then returning to engage in a busy time of ministering to crowds. Withdraw and engage and repeat and repeat and repeat. If Jesus felt the need to do this then how much more should we seek to emulate this pattern. 

The desert faithers and mothers of the 3^rd century initially lived on the outskirts of the towns and cities dotted along the banks of the Nile. And like Paul with his tent making, they would often weave ‘prayer baskets’ as a means of generating an income. Some did eventually wander deeper into the desert and many of them lived both as hermits and in community in monasteries. They left a rich corpus of written material that offers much wisdom we can draw upon. 

I spent several hours sawing and creating the front to my raised vegie box. It would have been quicker and to some degree easier to have got in the car and popped down the road, bought some planks and got the job done. Plus, I must admit, it might look neater.

However, I enjoyed the creative process, the looking at the pallets and working out how I could cut them up to fit into the size I needed. Also, the question remains as to what I would have done with the time ‘saved’ – done more things perhaps.  And so, the frenetic treadmill picks up a pace like being in a hamster wheel.

Consider this, where, when and how can you withdraw to a place of solitude. 

There is a story told of Susanna Wesley, who spent two hours a day with her apron pulled up over her head. Two of her children were John and Charles Wesley.

Ask yourself this question, what is stopping you stopping?

1. Drop Thy still dews of quietness,
   Till all our strivings cease;
   Take from our souls the strain and stress,
   And let our ordered lives confess
   The beauty of Thy peace.