Sunday, August 27, 2017

Sound the retreat...

In recent weeks, I have been challenged to think about the business of 'going on retreat'. I have always found this an odd concept because the word retreat has a mixture of meanings, and it is the one of running away that always comes to my mind first. Yet, in a holy life, in a life that strives to walk in the footsteps of Jesus, 'retreat' should be a part. Jesus often took himself away from the crowds and his disciples, to pray, spend time with God and prepare for the next step along the path that he was travelling. And a poignant example of this is that moment in the garden of Gethsemane, although anguished, was a time of retreat, preparation, a time with God.

In a busy schedule, with more work to do than is probably feasible in the hours available, 'going on retreat', especially when you're not quiet with the programme, goes by the wayside. Or so I might think. As I was out walk the dog, thinking about this question of should I be making time to 'go on retreat', I realised that actually I was at that moment on a sort of 'retreat'. Out on that path with the dog, away from the books, meeting agendas, telephone and emails, I quietly walk with God mulling over what has been and what is to come.

Now, I pretty sure there are those out there who will tell me that really isn't enough. I really should make time and 'go on retreat'. And I get it, honest, but I just cannot shake that picture of running away. Will spending a few days at a Retreat House, really prepare me what is next, or do I need to be 'on retreat' where maybe the trouble can find me, like in the garden of Gethsemane?

Last year, Luther (that's the dog not the Reformer) and I walked a path through the Suffolk countryside that links two places in the pastorate I partly serve. We did this to raise money for a couple of causes and so walked with purpose, with our sights on the end. Yet, as I shamefully watched the romantic comedy 'About Time' last night, I began to wonder if it was time to walk that path again, but this time with a little less purpose. In the film, the key character has the inherited gift of travelling in time, and his father, also with this gift, guides him through how best to use it. And one thing his father suggests is that he lives each day twice, once as it comes and the other taking the time to look around and take pleasure in different moments within the day. And maybe as I prepare for what is ahead in the pastorate I serve in the coming months, that is what I need to do. Not living each day twice (that would be a little impossible), but walking a path that is significant, taking time and not just aiming for the end.

So maybe there lies the answer for what 'going on retreat' has to be for me... well at this moment in my ministry at least.