This week, Joe interviews singer-songwriter Martyn Joseph. He talks about his career, the craft of song-writing, the pressures and joy of touring, and we end, of course, with a song. One of the thing which struck me most is that Martyn emphasises the importance of ‘turning up’ - not just going through the motions but giving the best you can give for whatever audience you have and whatever you are doing.
I follow the Wordhord Old English word of the day. Today’s word - ‘throsm’ - is wonderful.
Is God really in charge of the universe? Do prophecies actually happen? Lots of interesting feedback this week, coming out of last week’s chat about prophecy, guidance and generally ‘hearing’ from God. For some years now I’ve been thinking about our life as a collaboration with God, rather than God micro-managing everything. Christians, to me, often drift into a kind of fatalism, where everything is pre-ordained and planned. Such a concept of God seems to me to be more controlling than loving.
Before you go nuts and indulge in behavior you’ve never seen in yourself before, try to remember this. Nobody in Africa cares. Nobody in Asia cares. Nobody in Lapland cares. Nobody in baseball cares, in golf, in soccer—except maybe if you’re writing about baseball or golf or soccer. But even then they don’t care about you: They care about baseball players and golfers, people who bang balls around.
Carolyn See on putting your work, and your behaviour, into perspective.
In this episode we returned to one of the central questions of theology: is it right to pray for a parking space? As I say in the programme, I believe in an interventionist God, but I’m not sure he intervenes in quite the way we think. I was also really touched this week by an email from someone who, in the middle of a sad and difficult time, experienced a moment of mindfulness and grace.
This talk by Cabel Sasser is not just heartwarming and inspirational, it is, technically, a great piece of storytelling. Stay for the end and obey the instructions he gives.
I’ve been reading Making a Literary Life, by Carolyn See. You might think, having been a freelance writer for nearly 30 years I would have got this covered, but it’s nice to check out some other advice. (I think the term is ‘life-long learning’. Or it might be status anxiety.) Anyway, it’s a wise, humane and funny book.
I don’t know her or her novels at all, but she sounds lovely. She died in 2016 and I read a couple of blog posts about her. One had this great quote:
The only bad thing that will happen to us is that we’re going to die, and that’s not immediate, so let’s just see if we can have the nicest time possible.1
I needed that, this week.
This week Joe interviews an old college friend, Shaun Lambert, about mindfulness, wonder, and the need to ’re-perceive' God. It’s a really great interview, connecting mindfulness with spirituality in a very profound and helpful way. A lot of it is about the need to pay attention to ourselves and the moment we’re in. Attention is something I’ve been thinking about for a long time. In fact I led a retreat on the subject the week before lock down happened – an event which caused us all to pay greater attention in a whole new way!
This is a remarkable interview, about the power of music, and how the devastation of grief and loss is what truly shapes us.
There is a devastation that we all experience that turns us from being a half-formed person into a fully formed or fully realized human being… I don’t mean to be sort of the prophet of doom, but this is sort of coming for everybody at some point. If you’re loved and you love , this is all this is part of the deal I think.
Well, it’s been a pretty rubbish couple of weeks, but amidst the anxiety there are some good things. This week Joe and I chat a bit about comfort. My thoughts were inspired by giving a talk on Sunday on 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 which really describes how we are comforted by God (largely through each other) and how we then have to pass that comfort on. So we live in this virtuous circle of giving and receiving comfort.