Tracy Goffe

Member of St Andrews, Gorleston

 

Safe I stand on my Island secure. While warm summer breeze blows from inland meadows and fragrance from well rooted trees and plants assure me of peace from the shore of my island I look inland and see the strong granite rock supporting the stones of my dwelling not spacious, but secure and all is familiar.

 

 

But if I turn my gaze toward the ocean, I see the wild waves I hear the power of the tides pounding the pebbles of my land I see storm tossed crests and tempests beating at bows of broken vessels I dread the sound of the mariners cry and fear to hear the sobbing of suffering souls I long to face the shaded shore to plant my feet into the soil.  And yet, have I not looked inland long enough is the restless ocean stirring my slumbering soul does the spirit move on the face of the dark water to awaken me from comfort’s sleep.

 

 

 

 

How can we show this broken world that there is a God who lives beyond the safety of our church walls and the security of our homes, many of us settle for the familiarity and security of our routines, we are cushioned and pampered by our need for comfort . Can we truly reveal this love unless we ourselves are broken and poured out?

 

 

Three and half years ago I did not know how much of a reality this would be for me until the sanctity and sacred peace of my private world was interrupted by an invasion of noise and disruption of new neighbours, whose lives crashed into the shores of my sitting room through walls that were too thin to conceal the suffering of their daily lives. At first I acted with proper Christian behaviour, nice prayers and offerings of kindnesses and acts of a good loving neighbour. But lurking in the depth of the unseen was an awful truth; oh it took about 1 year to surface,

 

 

 ‘ I got fed up with the racket!   And I blew my top one morning’ ………there it surfaced!  I was not that loving, my praying, primarily, was for my own comfort and benefit; I felt angry and frustrated that my privacy had been invaded. One of the hardest things to cope with, as a Christian is not so much the sufferings of others but the reality of your own limitations. My sitting room wall became the frontline of my own weakness, from then on I vowed to fall on my knees and cry out my need for the compassion and love of God for my own selfishness and the needs of my broken neighbour;

 

 

‘…….For Love covers a multitude of sins, forgives and disregards the offences of others. (I Peter 4 v8)

Are these just nice words or is it possible to really live in the reality of this truth? Not in our own strength, I think, but by a power and love beyond our limitation, a love that breaks into the darkness and sets souls free. However there’s only one catch you have to come to the edge of YOU!!   I have been broken and poured out and my neighbour has found that Love.