Making Connections

I recently spent an hour and a half on a messenger chat with an engineer from BT who was trying to fix our BT vision box. All the TV channels had disappeared and we could no longer watch live TV. He kept getting me to try various leads and resets to see if this resolved the issue of the disappearing signal. He was trying to establish if there was a signal and, if there was, why it was so weak that no channels could pick it up. Eventually, the issue was diagnosed as being a problem with the aerial and so we await an engineer to see if this will solve the problem.

These things always seem to take more time than you believe you have. After ruling out various things, and narrowing them down to a few possibilities, I asked how much longer it would take. I explained that I needed to get back to work and the engineer explained he needed me to run all these tests and figure out why things were not working as they should. If the connection was dodgy, he explained, we wouldn’t be able to resolve the problem.

Like this particular issue, much of life is about establishing good connections, isn’t it? We want to be in good relationship with those around us, able to speak to them about the issues that are important to us, and able to listen as they raise concerns and matters that might require our attention.

At our recent Mind Matters seminar, on the topic of mental health, our inspiring speaker, Mike Donal, spoke of the importance of being a bridge. He spoke of how faith had become an important part of his life and he now felt called to be a bridge between the church and the community. He recognised the way the community felt alienated from the church for all sorts of reasons. He, himself, knew what this was like, and acknowledged how he carried a lot of misconceptions about the church throughout his life. When he eventually made it through the doors in his late 30’s, largely through the persuasive powers of his 7 year old daughter, it opened his eyes to a lot of things. He saw men he grew to admire and respect greatly who put their families first and sought to give God a place of priority in their lives. As he gave his own life to following Jesus, he described the flood of emotions this decision brought to him. He experienced things like forgiveness, peace, and the wiping away of feelings of shame and worthlessness. He discovered a new hope and purpose through this new relationship with Jesus, and wants to share that hope with others who know little or nothing of these things, and to be a bridge, a builder of connections.

One of the special ministries I have seen and experienced in the church is the ministry of hospital chaplains. They make their way around our hospitals checking in with people who find themselves in that situation. For some, their stay is very short, while others are there on multiple occasions and at times for quite a long stay.

Chaplains are great at building those connections. They seem to know instinctively when to stay and when to go. They tune into people’s fears and vulnerabilities and listen with great attentiveness and offer the ministry of prayer. I remember being visited by a chaplain in a children’s hospital in Dublin when our daughter had some surgery. She seemed to know what to say. She gave us space to share our concerns and she prayed for us as a family. It sounds simple, it was simple but it made a huge difference to us.

I noticed a poster in a hospital lift tonight inviting patients to connect with the chaplaincy through art sessions, and I thought, what a creative way to make those important connections.

A colleague, who found himself in intensive care requiring heart surgery, remembers waking up after his operation and the first person he saw was the hospital chaplain. She took his hand, read a verse from the Bible and prayed and disappeared within about 3 minutes. Yet, he remembers those 3 minutes with deep gratitude. It served to allay his fears and hand his situation over to God and, when he was unable to make that connection, someone did it for him.

Can you be that bridge or connection between someone and God? I love the way a small team is reaching out to the church and community with a film evening this Friday. It will be an opportunity to build connection through a film, some hospitality, a little carol singing and a moment of reflection. Our midweek Advent services, beginning this Thursday at 7.30 pm, offers the same opportunity.

Let’s do what we can to build connections with those around us, and with God, so that He might lighten our darkness and recreate us in love and restore us to wholeness and peace.

Looking forward to speaking again soon.

Much love to everyone,

Jono.

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