It was one of those mornings. I was coming too (waking up) and I was besieged by dark irrational thoughts, we all get them from time to time. I don’t think they come from a good place or from the Holy Spirit. It was difficult to break through but I was endeavouring as we often say.
What happened next helped me to see more clearly and set me up in a positive frame for the rest of the day.
When you’re at home with a young family it isn’t any good moping around one has to get on and often, out! The park was calling, one large Park, Stoke Park. As you can imagine I wasn’t inclined to go out, so it was against this backdrop of feeling beset on every side that I headed off. Ethan was happy to go over to the skate park with his scooter and Abi and I went for something different – kite flying!
It had been a long time since going out purposefully to fly a kite. They were in the back of the car, one suitable blue single line octopus pictured kite, with wide-tassle blue tail included, grabbed my attention, Abi agreed. Most of the flying was done by her which I didn’t mind, being a girl with a younger and older brother she often misses out on Daddy time I’m ashamed to say, so she got plenty of me this time!
As the kite was launched I began to notice the view and the sky. The clouds were wispy, white cirrus ones, high up in the blue expanse. The wind was coming in gusts, not particularly strong but enough to keep the kite aloft. Wind was from the direction of the cathedral and the experience was exhilarating! (We’d parked in the Nightingale Road car park so had aimed for the western edge of the green near the ice cream kiosk).
Immediately I felt a surge within as I watched the kite and released a jubilant cry. This is why I came out! My spirits lifted. I burst out watching the elements, “Lord you haven’t forgotten me!”
Later Abi expressed that it had been fun flying the kite. We’d spent an hour or thereabouts doing just that.
Another morning in the same week I awoke with the phrase “I don’t always come to you in ways that you expect I also come in different ways.” This phrase came to me as I was pondering the kite flying and thanking Jesus for different aspects of it. Also that week I had to take the car for its MOT. I walked back from dropping it off and collected it later in the same manner. The exercise felt good, as did the pleasure of playing with the children in the garden that afternoon!
As I thought of this I recall watching and being struck by three groups of people exercising at Stoke Park whilst kite flying with Abi. Old folks circuit training, mums with buggies running and single people out jogging. Could this be a sign that was reinforcing my experience as it came in a three? (When God speaks three times it’s extra important!).
Next it was the fact of doing something new or not done for a while, like the kite flying. Sharing with my family (the people aspect) especially playing in the garden with the kids, giving of myself. This has Holy Spirit all over it, helpful, whole and positive stuff.
We shouldn’t be ashamed of enjoying ourselves. Father God has given us all things richly to enjoy; even the Apostle Paul says exercise is a good thing (1 Tim 4:8) (as I think Sarah King would too!)! Also Philippians says “look out for one another’s needs not just your own”. See what happens when you ask the Holy Spirit to guide you in this.