WHAT HAVE I DONE WITH ME SO FAR?

This chronicle will be short, and quick, but I hope that the read will convey the emotions and message I felt while writing it.

So I was in a church different from mine today, St. Paul’s Crofton church. I got in a little after the service had started, collected a bulletin, found my way upstairs to the gallery because the ground floor was filled to capacity, and after muttering a silent prayer,  joined the rest of the church in singing one of the many hymns of the day.

To start with, I’ve always loved Catholic and Anglican churches for the beautiful melodies they bring to every song. This one was no different; I truly believe that solemn music has the capacity to heal. One particular song touched me so much, I decided to share it with you. Unfortunately I couldn’t find a choir rendition on YouTube that I liked, but this one you’ll watch works even better because it’s got the lyrics scrolling across the screen so you can learn it if you fall in love with it like I did! The song/hymn was written by David Evans and is called ‘Be Still and Know ‘.

On to the rest of the service. I’ll save you the gist of the person behind us who kept coughing and blowing her nose every two minutes and tell you that even though I had the bulletin, I didn’t read the first page (or maybe I just skipped the part where it was written) and so did not know that today’s service was a memorial service. It was puzzling therefore that the proceedings seemed to be about the dead, people grieving, in memory of, etc. More so because while speaking to my friend and guardian last night, we mentioned how all the happenings around us tie in with the scriptures and the soon coming of our Lord. I remember saying, ‘I have no problem with him coming, he should please just wait till I get married!’ So you can imagine how I felt when the Vicar kept referring to the people we’ve lost, death, and the afterlife.

The Vicar was lovely, the very soft sounding Rev. Bimbi Abayomi-Cole. In his sermon he touched on people dealing with their loss by concentrating on the beautiful memories they had, and the assurance that their dead were in happier, painless places than here. He also talked about the fulfillment in passing through this place called earth, and the privilege given by God to enter his rest.

That made me think (and is the essence of this chronicle); are we fulfilled in whatever it is we’re doing? Are we happy? Are we the reason for someone else’s happiness, or are they praying that we be taken away so they can be happy? If we were given a DVD of what your life has been (so far), would it be exciting to watch? Would we recommend it to a friend? Or would we gasp at some of the things that we’ve been up to?

All of this reminds me of a scripture my mom and dad would read to us on our birthdays, “teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts to wisdom”. 

After the sermon, we prayed, and then there was the symbolic lighting of candles as the names of the people being remembered were called; it was one of the most solemn moments I’ve witnessed in a long time. By this time of course I had realised it was a memorial service so my mind had settled.

After the service the Vicar called on the families of the dead to come, blow out their own candle, and take it. I watched carefully as that happened. One particular lady went forward with someone (that looked and behaved like her husband), and after she took her candle, began to cry. I watched as he held her close, and rubbed her back as she cried. And then walked her back to their seat so she could collect herself, all the while struggling to be strong, and I found I was crying too.

I had a cup of tea and then I left, and decided I would write this and for two reasons;

1. in remembrance of every one person I’ve known who’s left this earth (rest in peace)

2. to remind us (myself included) that we’ve got only one life to live, and what we do with every second, minute, hour of it should count. In other words, to make us think about what we’re doing with our lives.

A beautiful frame I saw in the church………See if you can read what’s written on it!

Have a most productive week, that’s an order from the Fairy GodSister!

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