Frustration!

I’ve been growling a bit recently!  Frustration has got the better of me on a number of occasions and I know I can become something of a ‘bear with a sore head’.  Members of the family know this is going on because I can physically be in the same room, or at the same table, as them but mentally I’m a million miles away, chewing over the problem in my mind!

Over recent days it’s been somewhat frustrating trying to ‘plan’ a come back to church.  We were all ready to open up the building for Private Prayer today (Tuesday).  We had done the Risk Assessment, physically prepared the Sanctuary, arranged stewarding and advertising and then, on Friday, discovered we had overlooked the protocol that required us to get ‘permission’ from our local Synod. 

Yesterday afternoon I started researching how we might play ‘commercially pre-recorded hymns and music’ in a live streamed service – to make up for the fact that it’s predicted that singing will be banned when we return to church services.  Well, no one licence gives us such permission.  I’m sure we’ll find a way to do something ‘musical’ – for example we don’t need permission to play back our own congregation singing the hymns (I think!!) – but it has all been a bit …frustrating!

Yet the truth is that so many hopes have been dashed because of the pandemic.  So many plans have had to be abandoned.  In this process we have, sometimes grudgingly, begun to re-assess what’s really important.  None of my frustrations have been fatal – and for that I’m truly grateful.

We will find a way and we will live with the ‘false starts’.  And in that process just maybe we’ll lean a bit of patience En route.

May you know God’s blessing and joy in all you do today.

Ian