Our Licensed Lay Minister Elizabeth O'Connor has been supplying short meditations each week, available on our Downloads page.

Below is the most recent.

Thought for the week by Licensed Lay Minister Elizabeth O’Connor

2021-10-13

Refreshment

Have you managed to get away for a break this year? I am in the fortunate position of recently having had some time away. A fresh view and relaxation can work wonders. The break from routine and seemingly ordinary busyness, hopefully gives the chill-out factor and enables us to be refreshed and renewed. After all, dieticians say that a diet of the same food every day is not good for you. It’s the same in life. There is a need for variety – some even say it is the spice of life. We all need the time to “be” and take time out. It helps us to refocus and recharge the batteries, to get back on track. When you look in the Bible there are instances where Jesus seeks to get away from it all for a time, either for peace and quiet, prayer, or just to relax with friends. As the saying goes, we are only human, after all. We need a balance: “all work and no play” is not good or productive in the long run.

God knows us inside out and seeks our wholeness in body, mind and spirit. May we rejoice in, and be refreshed by, God’s grace and abundant provision for our lives.

God of work rest and pleasure,
grant that what we do this week may be for us
an offering rather than a burden;
and for those we serve, may it be the help they need.
A New Zealand Prayer Book.

Your Spirit, Lord, is all around me
in the air I breathe;
your glory, Lord, touches me
in the light that I see
and the fruitfulness of the earth
and the joy of its creatures.
You have written for me, day by day, your revelation,
as you have granted me, day by day, my daily bread;
teach me how to receive it.

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