Crisis
By Ian Cowie (Chaplain 1976-88)
A crisis is a situation which demands that you make radical changes in your life.
If you make, or accept, the appropriate changes,
then you discover God's plan for the next stage of your life.
If you keep holding on to the past and will not let go -
trying to keep things as they are to preserve your identity -
then you will find yourself fighting against the grain of life.
It is hard to "hear" what people are trying to tell you,
"There's none so deaf as those who will not hear".
Eventually this turns into a form of depression.
If you give up struggling but still will not change,
one way out might be alcohol, drugs, self-destructive behaviour,
or even serious illness.
"Be still, and know that I am God" says the Lord.
What makes us hold on to the familiar instead of changing?
Fear of the unknown future -
not believing God can be trusted.
Fear of letting go of our survival techniques.
Pride which will not accept swallowing
much of what we have said.
Resentment that we have not been able to have our own way.
Resentment that something good has been taken from us.
Childish sulks and anger that life is "not fair".
Surrender to the "now"
Trying to preserve our old identity, we lose it.
Surrendering our old identity, we find a new one.
God is always in what IS, never in what might have been,
or in what we think should have been.
Though the mountains are cast into the sea
and my whole world is turned upside down,
yet my Father is with me,
Jesus my Lord redeems my mistakes and my hurts,
the Spirit of God makes a new person of me.
Lord, forgive what I have been,
accept what I am,
and direct what I shall become,
through Jesus Christ my Lord.
What makes us hold on to the familiar instead of changing?
Fear of the unknown future -
not believing God can be trusted.
Fear of letting go of our survival techniques.
Pride which will not accept swallowing much of what we have said.
Resentment that we have not been able to have our own way.
Resentment that something good has been taken from us.
Childish sulks and anger that life is "not fair".
Surrender to the "now"
Trying to preserve our old identity, we lose it.
Surrendering our old identity, we find a new one.
God is always in what IS, never in what might have been,
or in what we think should have been.
Though the mountains are cast into the sea
and my whole world is turned upside down,
yet my Father is with me,
Jesus my Lord redeems my mistakes and my hurts,
the Spirit of God makes a new person of me.
Lord, forgive what I have been,
accept what I am,
and direct what I shall become,
through Jesus Christ my Lord.