Floating in the Doldrums...

This week is turning out to be a rather curious lull or downtime, an ‘in between’ time. The essays have been written and handed in – and probably marked by now. The MA module for this semester starts next week and there are few lectures to go to, mainly optional ones at that. I have sort of started reading for the dissertation and there is a study day at ARU this Saturday (the whole day, O bliss, O rapture). But that sense of urgency that has been around since the end of the last academic year – brought on by the core module, mission, placement, sorting out a curacy and then, in last term, the Lent book, reading all the texts and writing essays – that has disappeared. There’s nothing much bugging me to blog about it. I’ve fiddled around – doing a service sheet, thinking about the next sermon – but generally have been having a bit of a break, which my body sorely needs.
After two years at Ridley, I can’t help noticing the parallel between this ‘in between’ time and the one we all live in. And the gospel passage I could preach on in a few weeks time also seems relevant. Luke 8.22–25 sees Jesus asleep in the boat in a bit of ‘in between’ time. But, of course, he is rudely woken up by the terrified disciples – who must have experienced storms like that and worse before – and he ‘rebuked the wind and the raging waves; they ceased and there was a calm. He said to them, ‘Where is your faith?’’
I think that I might be writing a sermon this afternoon…