the big move

Like buses: no post for two months, and then suddenly two on one day. I’ve just been up at my parents’ old house in bridge of weir, near Glasgow. They finally moved south to lymington near Southampton today, after nearly 27 years at The Laurels in BOW. A father and son team swept through the house like a force of nature, driving us on to clear stuff as fast as possible from shelves and cupboards. Mother was somewhat flabbergasted how much stuff there was in all kinds of nooks and crannies.
I wonder what they made of us? In churning through all the stuff, they quite possibly picked up that we’re a ‘religious’ family. I’m struck by the contrast, between their ruthless practicality and efficiency, and the sheer impracticality, inefficiency, apparent intangibility of the ‘religious way’ as it CAN so easily be lived. Strikes me it’s so easy to make religion a fantasy land, a comfort blanket. To some extent I feel I lived it like this a lot in the past. You don’t feel any kind of ‘practical pressure’ from God - that comes from other people and the circumstances of life. But Christianity could lay claim to being a very practical faith, and Jesus was a man of sweat and blood and tears. How do I work out my faith so it engages, is relevant to, has purchase with people who are by nature ruthlessly practical?