Retreat House Partner Cathy Irby Reflects on Matthew 16:13-20

"Our God is a Living God"

Simon Peter said, “You’re the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

In the movie Shawshank Redemption Tim Robbins’ character Andy tells fellow prisoner and friend Red, played by Morgan Freeman: “I guess it comes down to a simple choice, really. Get busy living or get busy dying.”

In March and April I worked to stay safe, find projects and entertainment to fill the time, help when I could from the confines of home, and stay emotionally centered until May or June when things would improve and life could return to normal. However May and June and July brought the sobering realities of a pandemic that has no clear timeline and solutions. I found myself wrestling with losses and stirrings of anger and hopelessness. I couldn’t just put on a happy face. I was challenged to consider how to live and not just exist, suspended in waiting for an end to the pandemic.

Then I found hope on my patio where I was reminded that our God is a living God.

Since we have been unable to travel, dine out or entertain family and friends, and we are confined to the same seven rooms everyday, my husband and I decided to create an outside room where we could “getaway”. Unfortunately our patio gets the western sun in the afternoon/evening, so in the past we haven’t found it to be enjoyable as the summer progressed. But this year we made some improvements that have created a beautiful, cooler, restful, somewhat mosquito proof environment and it has become a place of refuge. My husband jokingly calls it our staycation.

When I sit on the patio for my morning contemplation I have enjoyed the colors and shapes and textures of plantings, the songs and antics of birds, the somnolent hum of cicadas, the occasional flights of butterflies and dragonflies and a hummingbird, the wanderings of lizards and frogs, and the refreshing gurgling of our fountain.

And a fruit of that contemplation has been the reminder that nature doesn’t know about the pandemic, that nature continues its natural rhythms. I am reminded that the living God is actively creating as I watch and listen.

I lament the plants that have succumbed to my gardening mistakes or simply to their own life cycles but I am reminded that still all is well. And all manner of things shall be well. I am reminded that I can choose to live my life as fully as possible within the confines of this present time. The living God encourages me “to get busy living."

Cathy Irby is a Trained Spiritual Director and covenant partner of Retreat House.

LIsten to Rev. Dr. Lil Smith's Guided Meditation for Praying the Lectionary for Matthew 16:13-20.

Invitation
As you experience the practice of praying the lectionary, adopt a loving, caring and compassionate stance. If the end of your prayer and meditation time is not pointing to love and hope, there is more work to do. Keep wrestling. God is faithful to your journey. Love and hope will emerge. Be gentle with yourself and befriend any judgment that arises in you.

This excerpt was taken from a weekly meditation. To sign up to receive these, email us.