Taking a breather...

In Scotland, today is designated Breathing Space Day 2008. The organisation's website invites "everyone in Scotland to mark 1st February in their diary as a time to STOP and take some breathing space away from the stresses and strains of modern living," and you know, I reckon that's a pretty good idea myself. (I'd also like to extend the invitation to those of you not in Scotland as well...)

I only found out about it on Tuesday, at a short act of worship following a drop-in I go to, organised by the local community mental health chaplaincy service, led on that occasion by my friend, Maxwell Reay. As he pointed out then, many of the psalms are interrupted at various points by the word 'Selah' - the precise meaning of which is obscure - but it tends to be interpreted as a suggestion that we pause in our reading and just digest what's being said to us, and reflect a little, before we carry on to the next bit; and I reckon that makes a good deal of sense too.

As it happens, we have a little prayer meeting on Friday mornings at Gorgie Salvation Army, which we usually open with a bible reading of some description, and as we're normally all invited to suggest such readings, I suggested psalm 66, which we used and, together with the invitation described above, seemed to help prompt an unusually large volume of prayer - not all of which were of the terribly parochial variety - which, though valid and important, often put me off such meetings, as any outsider who chances by could justifiably observe that our group seems insular, exclusive and possibly not even too interested in including others - which of course, couldn't be further from the truth...!

We should guard against praying with a shopping list filled with only those people whom we know personally. Sometimes it's better to simply ask God to read our thoughts and make prayers from them - which he does anyway; and instead allow ourselves to pray for those people and situations our minds invariably stray towards; or even just shut up and listen to what God has to say to us! Go on, indulge me - contemplate!!