Matthew under the arm 36

Unfortunately, we had to do a lot of road walking recently. At a cross roads, we studied the map as we were uncertain where to find the exit from the road onto the pilgrims' route. On the other side of the road was a woman sitting on a stone, with her head in her hands. She was exhausted. My guess is that she was about 50 or so. She had been trying to hitch a lift for over five hours and so had given up. When she lifted her head, her face marked with tears and lined with exhaustion. She didn't speak any English. Perhaps she was a Romany. Did it matter? Anyway, she was from nowhere near here. I whispered to Columba that there was little we could do. His eyes flared at me. So he sat beside her, gave her milk and some bread from his rucksack. Nothing was said. Columba closed his eyes.... After half an hour, he gave her a piece of paper with an address on it, some soap and a clean towel... oh...and some money. I understood at last.

Matthew 9:18-26….
The woman is bleeding, poor and with the social taboo that surround women like flies, and to a certain extent still does. But this woman is desperate! Christ is the servant of the desperate. Those around Jesus in this story are either irritated or embarrassed. But who cares about all that when desperate? Political, religious or any other kind of rectitude matter little when one side of your stomach is touching the other. And for that matter, does your belief or lack of it matter if you're desperate? This is a passage that is full of ‘gut’. The truth is revealed: ‘Her cover is blown’. What is our haemorrhage: anxiety, unresolved guilt, anger, exhaustion? What matters to us so much that humiliation would be a secondary issue – if not entirely irrelevent? Delight in the healing that comes from truth…


Be still and I will reveal My Truth and My Life within you


One of the joys of meditation is that it doesn’t really matter what you feel like. Your cover is blown when you pray! Nobody is watching or listening. Imagine you are standing before a mirror with nothing on and imagine that you are with someone important. What do you say and do? If that doesn’t make you laugh…..! Laughter in prayer is so releasing. You have nothing on before God anyway! Now place before God the truth of who you really are. Tell God precisely what your ‘bleeding’ is… Or put your ‘child’ – desperate – before God. Then using the sentence – relax and let God work on you. The desperate also know how to laugh.

+Martin
Argyll and The Isles