— Midweek Meditations:
thoughts, inspiration and encouragement
from ACF community members —
I’m not sure how many of you have seen Les Miserables, but it’s a story that I’ve been thinking about a good deal over the last week. There is one scene in particular that I have been coming back to: the one in which Cosette meets Jean Valjean for the first time. She is a poor mistreated child, very much cast in the role of unloved stepdaughter, who has been sent out deep into a dark forest to collect water in a bucket so large she can barely lift it. As if the physical difficulty wasn’t enough, she is terrified as she walks alone through the cold. Valjean, a physically imposing and powerful man, suddenly appears by her side from the middle of the darkness and wordlessly takes the bucket to carry it for her; after this meeting, he continues to look after her like a father until the end of the story.
This is how Victor Hugo describes Cosette’s reaction:
There are instincts for all the encounters of life.
The child was not afraid.
As Hugo has it, instincts spontaneously unfurl and guide the course of our actions. Of course, we are usually free to either act on these instincts or not, but our interactions often bear their imprint. Our instincts are woven into us: they warn us of danger, or reassure us that all is safe. They push us either towards harmony or discord, unity or division.
As Christians, we might recognise some of our instincts as a divine spark, that small voice of God within us. But which ones? We are invited to look into ourselves and search for this voice and use it to drive us to a life more closely aligned with God’s will. But this voice is mixed up with, and overlayed by, many of our own reactions, prejudices and tastes. It is our task to discern God’s voice from the noise.
Perhaps relevant here is Jesus saying:
Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you.
Mat 7:7
Maybe this verse could be talking about the search for God’s voice.
St Ignatius of Loyola had some interesting and useful insights on the topic of discerning the voice of God from the background noise. He talked about our inner voices either leading to desolation – moving away from God – or consolation – moving towards God. All we have to do is knock, pause, and ask ourselves honestly which of our impulses bring us to God and which push us away. Rarely are encounters as decisive as the one between Cosette and Valjean, but they are all steps on our path. It is up to us in which direction we walk.
The ACF Midweek Meditations
are written by a diverse group of our church members with the intention to seek God’s fingerprints in our lives. They range from somber to humorous and are inspired by all facets of live and faith. Written by ordinary people from all walks of life, they reflect a wide range of Christian backgrounds and spiritualities.
Each week’s text portrays the individual viewpoint of its author. They might not always resonate with everyone, and are not meant to be understood as representing the Anglican Church Freiburg as a whole. Yet, as a church that is aiming to ‘Build a Community of Grace’ we seek to practice learning from and listening to one another.
We pray that these humble ponderings add a small spark of blessing to your week.
Freiburg Anglican Church 