Benches

Be at peace. Rest a while.

It can be a disappointment when you follow a path only to discover that it leads to a dead end.

Dead ends make you feel  a bit cheated. A path should take you somewhere instead of ending abruptly, leaving you seemingly nowhere. A sense of expectancy or adventure can turn into annoyance at simply having to turn back.

At the end of this path is a bench.

You haven’t arrived anywhere in particular, the path simply stops but you’re invited to sit down. If you take up the invitation, you then immediately wonder why you did. All you can see is the path you’ve just travelled along and the scenery of a dead end which really isn’t all that attractive, at least not at this time of the year anyway. The trees are still mostly bare, the ground is very damp and soft underfoot, there is no scenic vista, and there is no apparent reason for this to be a place to have either travelled to or to spend any time lingering.

Pointless, slightly frustrating, a waste of time until…

you close your eyes.

and listen.

By not concentrating on what you can see, you become more aware of what you can hear.

A bubbling stream. Chirruping birds. A sighing, gentle breath of air. Sounds of nature that help ease out the tension in your shoulders, encourage you to inhale a little slower, a little deeper, soothing mind, body and soul.

Maybe there is something worth paying attention to here after all, and in order to notice it, you have to stop moving, and stop concentrating on just the path.

Our focused, determined strides don’t always take us where we intended. Life can be full of dead ends. Pathways that don’t seem to have led anywhere at all.

We come to the end of our energy. The end of our ideas. The end of our plans. The end of our theology. The end of our prayers. The end of ourselves and we find a bench waiting for us in the spot.

What if we stop for a moment, sit down and wait before moving on.

What if God is inviting us to sit down for a little while, to close our eyes and simply listen. What if he has been walking beside us the whole time and he has made sure that there is a bench at the end of the path. A spot for us to simply rest, breath, and listen.

The soft cooing of a gentle dove ministers to our spirit, the soughing of a holy wind through the unattractive bare branches of our thoughts clears the mind, and the sound of living water that flows from the deep places reminds us of all that is pure and true.

Eventually we have to get back on our feet and keep walking, sometimes backwards, sometimes forwards but whichever way it is, there will surely always be a bench when and where we need it.