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Come Away With Me: I Heard A Whisper Today

James Cathcart April 15, 2024 6 0
Come Away With Me: I Heard A Whisper Today

Listen to this blog:

I Heard A Whisper Today

 

Hello! I’m James Cathcart from the Sanctuary First team and I’m delighted — and more than a little bit excited — to introduce the first of our new blog series Come Away With Me!

We will use these articles to create little pockets of space to come away and meet God in the middle of our day. They are an invitation to enter a holy space where we can shelter for a while in God’s presence.

Back in January, our minister Ruth Kennedy gave us a wonderful Message for The Year inspired by Song of Songs 2:10:

My beloved spoke and said to me,
    “Arise, my darling,
    my beautiful one, come with me.

She encouraged us to see this year as a year we can respond to God’s call to know him in deeper relationship:

"If you are looking for direction in life to discover your identity and purpose — why on earth you are on earth — this word is for you. Jesus says ‘Come away with me, make time and space with me and you will see and hear the songs to sing in your life that you are meant to sing’. These songs may be a metaphor and they may be literal! That is for you and God to know!”

How inspiring! When we come away with God, it is not to escape reality, it is rather to delve deeper into it, into the eternal love at the heart of the universe… God does not offer us escapism, a way of getting away from it all, God instead freely gives us a loving relationship, a friendship that encourages and inspires us, equipping us for the push and pull of everyday life.

This series plans to use the gifts of language, creativity and expression to create poetic, mindful, meditative, reflective and prayerful spaces where we can respond to God’s call to us.

I am delighted that this beautiful poem, I Heard A Whisper Today, kindly shared with us by Rev Anne Redpath, launches our new series. In these words Anne beautifully conjures a series of immersive and thought-provoking images in a contemporary psalm.

Take a moment to steady yourself, to come away with God, and begin…

 

I Heard A Whisper, Anne Redpath

 

I heard a whisper today

it lifted my heart

captured my soul

and gave me hope

that the tide is rising.

 

It is not quite time yet

to cast off and set sail

but time to make ready

and make room

to watch and wait

for the unmistakable sound

that the whisper

has become a shout

a bellowing beckoning

unrelenting call

to venture forth

roped together

three strands holding us fast

to a purpose

that throws caution to the wind

anchoring us only to Christ’s love

 

and there is a song on the wind

catching our breath

filling our lungs

drum beating our hearts

 

harness the wind

sing the song,

let courage and faith arise

let hope strengthen,

trust embolden,

anchoring us only to Christ’s love

 

Feel the strength,

know the truth

we are anchored in Christ’s love

with no safer place to be

when in a flimsy vessel

on open sea

taken to God knows where.

 

Feel the strength,

know the truth,

God knows where

and we will be carried

on the currents of his relentless love

to a longing people

the cargo in our hearts broken open,

contents spilling treasure on the shore,

our baskets emptied

ready to hold and treasure

all Christ offers to us there.

 

I heard a whisper today

it lifted my heart

captured my soul

and gave me hope

that the tide is rising.

 

Our sincere thanks to Anne Redpath for launching Come Away With Me!