Just Keeping Going…

Yesterday…

…I had a number of conversations with friends suffering with anxiety… about past traumas, grief and bereavement, family breakdown, undiagnosed and uncurable sickness… family members, relationships, studies…

Some friends had taken action… medication, counselling, prayer. Some didn’t know what to do next. Some concluded that they had no choice but to just keep going…

…We took daughter-Jo and granddaughter-Hannah to Norwich. They live 2 miles away from us in Lowestoft. We’d booked a meal in a Norwich restaurant and then were going to the theatre.

We set off to pick them up… an ambulance and bus blocked the road; we turned round… There were traffic lights, road works, more traffic lights. A 5 minute journey took 25 minutes.

The 27 mile journey to Norwich was uneventful. A mile from the car park we were aiming for traffic ground to a halt. More road works, more traffic lights. We just kept going – very slowly… The last mile took half an hour!

…At the theatre we watched the musical ‘The Color Purple’ – based on the Alice Walker Novel. It was an excellent production.

Young Celie is raped, has two children that are taken from her and is force into a loveless marriage. She’s beaten into submission – abused, abandoned and unwanted. She describes herself as a poor, black, ugly girl with no hope.

Celie gains confidence, strength, courage, dignity and hope. Through the tough times she just keeps going and comes through violence and oppression with resilience, forgiveness and love…

This morning… reading Acts 12… Peter is persecuted for his faith; friends have been executed;  Peter just keeps going. He’s imprisoned, chained between two soldiers. There’s no way out… Following prayer, angels and the miraculous, that even those with faith find impossible to believe, Peter finds freedom.

Musing… just keeping going… through anxieties… through impatience when life goes slowly or grinds to a halt… when the victim of unavoidable trouble… with prayer and hope… to a place of strength, dignity and freedom.