Poet's Corner - A new blog for 2021

Hi there, and welcome to our second brand new blog series here at Redeemer for 2021! Once a month, our resident poet Steve Page, will be sharing with us some of his favourite poetry. We’ll be hearing from a range of voices, from famous poets to some of our very own Redeemer family members. We hope this blog builds you up, and helps you to grow in your relationship with God, maybe it will even stir you to write some poetry of your own!

Without further ado, here’s the first Redeemer Poet’s Corner of 2021…

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Hope

This is my favourite poem on the theme of hope. It calls us to not give up.

(And we know a hope that keeps singing.)

”Hope” is the thing with feathers
Emily Dickinson

“Hope” is the thing with feathers -
That perches in the soul -
And sings the tune without the words -
And never stops - at all -

And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -
And sore must be the storm -
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm -

I've heard it in the chillest land -
And on the strangest Sea -
Yet - never - in Extremity,
It asked a crumb - of me.

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Jesus was poetic too, using vivid imagery to communicate timeless truths - painting pictures that stick in the mind.

Here's what he had to say on the topic of hope and worry.

Matthew 6:26-34
26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?
27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin.
29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.
30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?
31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’
32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.
33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

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You might say that Hope is a person called Jesus.

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Poet’s Corner is arranged each month by our resident poet, Steve Page. In addition to being a poet, Steve is a deacon at Redeemer, a true friend, a trusted advisor, and a giver of great hugs. You can find more of his poetry at hellopoetry.com and follow him on Instagram.

How Hope Carries Us Through This Pandemic

It’s been 8 weeks since we’ve been in lockdown in London and there are now talks of a lockdown being eased. My prevailing feelings of boredom, memories of the unfettered ways I could be enjoying my day is bubbling to a strong, heightened sense of longing. I most look forward to alfresco dining amidst the emerging summer breeze in the warm company of family & friends. 

This is my Hope, a return to all the things I once found simple pleasure in. 

It seems that hope has a purpose, it reframes our present. Hope is a feeling of expectation that something good will happen. Because the current pandemic causes us to press pause on the present, it focuses our attention on the future. It’s our envisioned future that helps us get through the now and suggests there’s something about our present that we are discontent with while we wait for what we want.

God created us as embodied social human beings who thrive off the energy of others, isolation has severely curtailed that for me. I miss the urban life and the kinetic buzz garnered from being in a room packed full of people. I miss the spontaneous vis-à-vis conversations, banter about everything from the frivolous to the deep. Yes, these still take place on zoom but it’s simply not the same as being in the same room as someone else.  The fact is, we are humans that never stop longing for something, lockdown or no lockdown - our ever-evolving desires will never fade away.  The pandemic has served to draw us back towards our basic human instinct - to survive and avoid catching CO-VID 19. 

Perhaps the collective feeling that we are all in this together, is for many, a welcomed respite from FOMO - when we are all sanctioned to our homes there is less to miss out on. Or perhaps we welcome the withdrawal from the individualistic daily hustle to be someone and “make our mark in the world”. Confined to our homes, stripped of the superfluous and focussed on the essential, there’s no need to distinguish ourselves, to draw attention and compare.

Our basic need becomes food, water and shelter - the first few weeks has shown how quickly our human instinct kicks in when an unannounced deadly virus arrives on the scene. But as we are now experiencing, when the viral pandemic becomes more controlled and risks minimised - we start to turn our attention elsewhere. According to “Maslow Hierarchy of Needs”, secured of our basic needs - our new baseline for survival becomes the next rung; we look to get back on the dating scene; to find the partner of our dreams; we seek out our next career manoeuvre; we aim for 200 more followers on Instagram. 

Our moving goal post shows we are hope-based humans. 

We are continually moving along a spectrum of desires - an excellent education, a flourishing career, the perfect spouse, a granite kitchen top in our Pinterest home, well-behaved children. As the cyclical pattern begins again - we want the same for our children. We have endless desires that realistically won’t be fully met in our lifetime. None of these things are wrong, we were created with an impetus to build families, homes and careers. This pandemic is frustrating because it has become a glaring obstacle, an invasion of our plans. 

We are fundamentally creatures with intrinsic desires that propel us to the next thing. Most of us are already daydreaming about what post-lockdown life will look like. But the landscape will not look the same for everyone. Economically, businesses unable to remain financially viable will perish and jobs will go. Until we find a vaccine, people will face severe health challenges and we will lose loved ones. Lockdown may have perhaps spurred you to re-evaluate your direction and question whether you’re building the right career or are in the right relationship. 

Sooner or later, we face a time when our dreams don’t feel like they are coming to fruition, we face disappointment from our relationships, work and health. Disappointments are a direct confrontation of our broken world as we try to reconcile our ever-increasing hopes and desire versus the limitation of an imperfect word. This doesn’t mean we should give up, our desires reveal to us a greater vision of the good life, as CS Lewis summarise so well:

“Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists. A baby feels hunger: well there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim: we, there is such a thing as water. Men feel sexual desire: well, there is such a thing as sex. If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.” [1]

We sense something other-worldly because we were wired by our maker to want to live forever. He has placed “eternity in the hearts of men so that we will seek him” (Ecclesiastes 3:11).  On a conscious or subconscious level, we desire to be eternal – to make our mark in the world after we’re gone by chasing after things through recognition. Think about it, every endeavour we chase is a pursuit to be remembered forever, we try to do this by living on through our family or through our work. We’re summoned to do this because we think there is one life, as the current truism goes; we are implored to “to live our best life” now.  

As the past few weeks have shown us, death doesn’t discriminate – rich or poor, famous or not – we are all subject to death. When the late Apple founder Steve Jobs faced mortality, he was able to distil this gnawing feeling we have to “be eternal”:

“It’s strange to think that you accumulate all this experience, and maybe a little wisdom, and it just goes away. So I really want to believe that something survives, that maybe your consciousness endures.” [2]

Jobs understood something about the coldness of death. Former first lady, Michelle Obama describes the sudden death of a close friend in a similar way, she says how death was “perverse, how the world just carried on”[3].  I believe Michelle Obama is spot on: death is perverse and unnatural, deep down we want to believe that we’re not some stat on a bell curve; that death is not an on-off switch and we’re gone.

Death is unnatural because God created us for something more. God has placed eternity in our hearts because an eternity exists. Jesus says “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die” (John 11:25).  

Our Hope is not wishful thinking but a confident assurance in the only person in history to have raised himself from the dead, the only one that holds the keys to death and can give us true eternity.

By Ann Ajet

Ann is a major foodie and likes to explore street food markets with her husband and daughter.  She also likes writing about deep stuff at Bread. 

[1] Mere Christianity by CS Lewis

[2] Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

[3] Becoming by Michelle Obama

Redeemer reads 2 Corinthians 4

Welcome! Over the next few weeks we are going to be reading 2 Corinthians together as a church, 1 chapter every week day. We’re encouraging everyone to read the passage, pray, and share with a few others what they felt God was pointing out to them in his word. Every day we’re going to be hearing from someone at Redeemer about what they felt God pointed out to them as they read the passage.

This morning Tara is sharing with us, you can watch her video above. She has also shared some more of her thoughts on the passage below.

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I thank God that he has unveiled my faith and sent an atomic bomb to shed His Light on my darkness. 

I particularly loved the reminder of Paul’s war cry prophesy in verses 8-9. I am so grateful that in my weakness and darkest moments I have this declaration. I am particularly declaring this over our frontline NHS staff members. 

In chapter 4 Paul encourages us “I believed, and so I spoke.” This is not the season for unspoken faith. But the season to confess and speak Gods word into existence. 

I loved the image of “that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.” Gods Grace is extending to so many during this season and we must continue to be the light and salt of the earth.

I am encouraged not to lose heart. Though we are not exempt from suffering and our outer self fades we have the hope that our inner self is renewed day by day. 

For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
2 Corinthians 4:17-18

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Further Study

Paul’s ministry was by no means a story of total success and minimal hurdles, and as we read in today’s passage, there was clearly many people who weren’t responding to his gospel message! This is similar in many ways to our own experience of evangelism. In this talk (link below) from September 2017, Mike Cain of Emmanuel Bristol shares with us how to respond “when it appears the gospel isn’t working”.

Bring peace and hope to your finances with the CAP Money Course

You may have recently been inspired by the BBC documentary ‘The Debt Saviours’, a programme which highlighted the inspiring story of Christians Against Poverty, a charity on a mission ‘to release thousands of families from poverty through award winning debt counselling and community groups’.

Redeemer Church is about to start hosting a CAP Money Course at Ealing Town Hall on Sunday afternoons which consists of three sessions, it is aimed at absolutely anyone, whatever your financial situation. They are designed to help you take control of your finances and learn skills which have a lasting impact on your budget.

In case you’re not yet convinced, here’s 3 reasons you should give CAP a try.

1) It’s free!

The CAP money course is free to attend and comes with free access to online budgeting tools which can be used for as long as you like after the course is over. Those running the course will also be able to get you in touch with other free services that CAP provides if necessary, services such as debt help, job clubs and life skills classes.

2) It helps you build a budget!

Many of us would love to be better at budgeting but we simply don’t know where to start in terms of establishing a system or a budget. The CAP course will provide you with a template around which to build a budget personal to you, which allows you to focus on your day to day financial needs while also preparing for future costs and saving towards long term financial goals.

3) It works!

There are countless stories of how the CAP course has transformed people’s lives, from simply changing the way the looked at money, to setting people free from seemingly insurmountable debt. You can hear just one of the many stories by following the link below.

https://youtu.be/DJkhcmBJ1xU

So what are you waiting for? The CAP Money Course run by Redeemer Church, London starts THIS SUNDAY on the 28th of October, and you can sign up by visiting the CAP website (capmoney.org) or contacting James & Alicia who are running the course on 02080 995692.