Â鶹ԼÅÄ

A reflection and prayer to start the day with the Revd Dr Craig Gardiner, a tutor and chaplain at Cardiff Baptist College.

Good morning.

Today my family will be packing up the car in readiness for our holidays. The dog takes up most of the boot, so our stuff is going in the roof-box or squeezed in underneath our seats. This always reminds me of my childhood, when our family would cram into a Mini-Traveller with our cases strapped to the roof rack and wrapped in polythene. My father never knowingly left anything behind that might be useful for the journey. His motto was ‘We’re better looking at it than ever looking for it.’

It's not bad advice, as long as you’ve got some capacious and preferably mechanised transportation. But as long-distance walkers and hitchhikers would tell us, if we’re carrying everything in a rucksack, we need to travel light.

Of course, while this is true for the physical journeys we take, it’s also true for our spiritual travels too. The heavier our burdens, the more worries we carry in our heart and the heavier fears weigh on our mind, then the more difficult it can be to make good progress.

Perhaps this is why some of the most encouraging words that Jesus ever spoke come in Matthew’s gospel. There he offers the invitation, ‘Come to me if you’re weary and worn out and I will give you rest. My burden is light, and I will teach you how to walk the unforced rhythms of grace.’

This is good news to the many of us who will start our days feeling tired; physically perhaps, but also weary in our minds or lacking a vitality in our spirit. God offers us a deeper rest than we have ever known and shares with us the possibility of new and unrushed patterns for progress. Surely this is something worth taking on whatever journey we will take today.

Dear God
who walks with every traveller,
teach us today
to live freely,
and step lightly,
carrying only your promises of rest and rejuvenation in our heart.
Amen.