{"id":405,"date":"2018-12-31T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-12-31T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johndavies.org\/wp\/2018\/12\/31\/we-cannot-know-whats-coming-but-we-can-approach-it-faithfully\/"},"modified":"2025-09-16T15:21:29","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T14:21:29","slug":"we-cannot-know-whats-coming-but-we-can-approach-it-faithfully","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johndavies.org\/wp\/2018\/12\/31\/we-cannot-know-whats-coming-but-we-can-approach-it-faithfully\/","title":{"rendered":"We cannot know what\u2019s coming – but we can approach it faithfully"},"content":{"rendered":"

John\u2019s Notes<\/strong><\/p>\n

Parish Magazine Editorials, <\/strong>January 2019<\/strong> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In my childhood we welcomed in New Year by standing beside the River Mersey at midnight to hear the ships out on the Irish Sea sound their foghorns. They made an odd sound, groaning and weirdly pitched – not unlike the sound of a distant herd of cows anticipating feeding. In my memory when the ships\u2019 horns sounded it was<\/em> often foggy: obscuring their lights and muffling the offshore noises, adding to their mystery. <\/span><\/p>\n

So our New Years began in mystery and dullness and distance and oddness – far from the clarity demanded by our culture with its call for resolutions and its shrill predictions of what we should expect in the year ahead. But don\u2019t you think that most of our experience is wrapped in enigma; mostly our future is a mystery to us. It\u2019s a waste of time my trying to predict what will come my way in 2019. But like my younger self stumbling home across Crosby Beach in the dark as the foghorns faded, so my present self must simply turn with the year, and step directly into it in faith and hope. <\/span><\/p>\n

When people talk about prophecy they often mean \u2018predicting the future\u2019. But a truer description of the prophets is that they were and are people who shine a light on the signs of our times, speak the often hidden or uncomfortable truths, and call people to live faithful, obedient lives with and for God in the face of all of that. We cannot know what\u2019s coming – but we can approach it faithfully. This is why I am a fan of the Methodists\u2019 New Year practice of renewing their covenant with God. If we pray John Wesley\u2019s covenant prayer we acknowledge the uncertainty of what is ahead whilst embracing it in faith and commitment. He prayed it daily:<\/p>\n

I am no longer my own but yours. Your will, not mine, be done in all things, wherever you may place me, in all that I do and in all that I may endure; when there is work for me and when there is none; when I am troubled and when I am at peace. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Your will be done when I am valued and when I am disregarded; when I find fulfilment and when it is lacking; when I have all things and when I have nothing. I willingly offer all that I have and am to serve you, as and where you choose.<\/em><\/p>\n

Glorious and blessed God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, you are mine and I am yours. May it be so for ever. Let this covenant now made on earth be fulfilled in heaven. Amen.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John\u2019s Notes Parish Magazine Editorials, January 2019    In my childhood we welcomed in New Year by standing beside the River Mersey at midnight to hear the ships out on the Irish Sea sound their foghorns. They made an odd sound, groaning and weirdly pitched – not unlike the sound of a distant herd of cows … Continue reading “We cannot know what\u2019s coming – but we can approach it faithfully”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johndavies.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johndavies.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johndavies.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johndavies.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johndavies.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=405"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/johndavies.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1395,"href":"https:\/\/johndavies.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405\/revisions\/1395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johndavies.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johndavies.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johndavies.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}