Fashion

Lorna is a deceptively small woman.

She leads our Spiritual Formation course in the module.  This time last year it was the first session with Lorna that provoked me to consider that God might be saying more to me than I wanted to hear.  It was an initial step on a journey that has led us to a new life in Raleigh.

Today she led us into an exercise that seemed simple enough.  After some simple preparation we had 20 minutes to God to be with us and guide our thoughts.  Simple.  Then we go to some point in our lives that God wants to visit with us.

"Allow God to tell you your story in a new way."

In my case, God took me back to a meeting a short time ago.  It was a good meeting.  But God drew my attention to an issue He wanted to deal with in me.  Namely, he was confronting me about my tendency, in certain situations, to hide my "I" rather than fully engage in an I/Thou experience.  He showed me that his desire was to be Aslan to my dragon-skinned Eustace and that I'm better off pink and vulnerable which can only happen after his claw has left me stripped of even my thinnest layer of self-protecting guise.

So I found myself metaphorically sprawled out on the floor after this exercise wondering how Lorna had once again been used by God to turn me upside down even though this time I knew what was coming.

This was a big morning for me.

In the midst, this song by Steve Bell was playing in my spirit.

Fashion for Me – Music and Lyric by Steve Bell

Fashion for me a desert of peace
A land that is empty of endless disease
With no one to suffer, hate or appease
With nothing to covet, desire or compete
But You alone

Grant to me Lord by Your sovereign hand
To wander forever in this boundless land
Where all of my yearnings, fears and demands
Are abandoned and lost to the great desert sands
Surrounding me

Fashion for me a desert of peace
Where Father, Son and Spirit meet
Together as one – together release me
Free from sin to enter in
To life forevermore

Fashion for us a city of love
Where the lamb and the lion together lie down
Where all of the wandering pilgrims are found
Rejoicing in song for the Saviour is crowned
As Lord and King

Grant to us Lord by your sovereign hand
A city of joy in the heart of the land
A home for the weary alien man
The fatherless children, the widow whose hands
Are tired and worn

Fashion for us a city of love
Where Father, Son and Spirit live
Together as one – together allow us
Free to take and celebrate
The life forever more

Do yourself a favour today and find a quiet spot with a cup of tea or coffee and take 20 minutes to let God tell you some part of your story in a new way.