Pilgrim Soldier

After being on holiday since Sunday I’ve managed to switch off pretty much from office mode and am enjoying spending some time simply relaxing. Following on from our trip to Sherwood Forest, we did the 30 minute stroll from my parents’ house to Lincoln Cathedral (which cunningly poses as Westminster Abbey in the DaVinci Code). Now having lived in Lincoln for 18 months in my youth I’ve been in the Cathedral several times, but it was a first for Sian!

Two things about the visit struck me! Firstly, there were a lot of children on school trips from a variety of different schools. That meant that when we were inside the cathedral itself it was full of children chatting to each other and instead of being the normal quiet, serene place, it was full of voices of various types. For me this was a wonderful thing! All too often we expect an awed silence when we go into these “houses of God” and people almost seem scared to talk at times. For me the noise of everyday life that I experienced today made it one of my most memorable visits to Lincoln Cathedral.

The second thing was Sian’s reaction to going into “Church”. When we left she kept saying that she wanted to go back inside and she really didn’t want to leave. For me this simple and innocent expression of her opinion really spoke to me about the way people react to the Church. I’ve seen things on some Christians’ blogs that are starting to question whether you actually need to be part of a Church to be a Christian. Some of these seem to suggest that they feel it is possible to sustain their relationship with God without getting into relationships with people! For me this is an integral part of being in Church! I don’t care about the building we meet in, or even if we meet in a building, but I do want to share my walk with other Christians, drawing from the fellowship that we experience when we come together! By expressing her disappointment at leaving the church building, I felt so sad that I sometimes don’t have the same response when I leave the people who make up my church! Lord give me a longing to be such a part of church, that I am tangibly disappointed when I’m not in community with my fellow sisters and brothers!