# BigRead13 Thoughts
I love the way that The Screwtape Letters speak from the perspective of the devil, and how we can see just how gently (that slow & gentle slope we spoke about the other day) things start to bug us, until they are really big things (typical passive-aggressive behaviour we think? – I think I’ve got better at speaking up before it gets annoying!) that ‘explode’ – not particularly:
Bring fully into the consciousness of your patient that particular lift of his mother’s eyebrows which he learned to dislike in the nursery, and let him think how much he dislikes it.
So the passage from Ephesians – partly produced here from The Message I really like – mend fences before they are broken beyond repair ..
And mark that you do this with humility and discipline—not in fits and starts, but steadily, pouring yourselves out for each other in acts of love, alert at noticing differences and quick at mending fences. (Eph 4:1-3)
Although one thing I’ve had to learn over recent years is that you can want to mend fences, but it’s a 2-way street and both need to help put it up (pushing the analogy there?!). But back to the small things that C.S.Lewis talks about… we all have quirks – we’re human – of course we’ll all do things that are annoying, and one thing that life coaching really taught me is that we all have to accept each other as we are – we all start where we are and there’s no other place to start…
That doesn’t mean we can all just behave as we like… but think about the consequences of our actions on others.
@40Acts
Nice idea – invite your neighbours round for a cuppa .. which reminds me – must text mine to say I’ve gone as they’re going to look after my place whilst I’m away … nice little community I’m living in (geographically) – but also a part of many different communities – the Cranmer Hall/Wesley Study Centre at St John’s is amazing – and there’s Chris & Sian giving me lunch/lift to the station today, lots of encouragement from people in my online community, and about to ‘grab a cuppa’ with @Vicky_Walker once I get to London – a long overdue catchup!!
Brian Draper: Lent 40
Nice quote from Julian of Norwich, which I remember people saying to me as I was deciding whether to move to Durham
‘All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.’*
Combined with a poem which is a great reminder that the choices we have made are the choices we have made, and that there’s no point wondering what might have been different (I believe this may come up from Aslan somewhere too ;-))
Pam’s Perambulations
Really like this quote in the light of this week/some of the posts we’ve had this week:
The desert is hard work, can be painful, soul-destroying – but ultimately,and this in not something you can see while you are there, it can be a place of fruitfulness and of life. Because when everything has been stripped away, you become sure of what you can rely on. What your basis is, and from their you can build. From starkness and desolation comes life and growth.
#Do1NiceThing
Well that’s nice and straightforward… do that every day – in some way I think – any need to be more intentional? 🙂
Lent challenge today is spread the love on Facebook & Twitter – be nice & compliment people! #othersrworthit
Just leaves me to sit back on the train for 10 mins and be #notbusy!!