March 2026: Thoughts from Huw

Dear Friends

Luke 4:1-13

Lent is a time for reflection as we journey with Jesus to the cross of suffering and pain. Life can seem a struggle at times and Lent gives us a chance to face up to all the things that trouble us with the hope that God is with us and knows what we are going through.

We read that Jesus spent forty days and nights in the desert, reflecting and praying. The desert experience came at a crucial moment in his life. A time of great awakening. It would be impossible to exaggerate its importance for him. From this experience Jesus grew to love solitude and made a habit of seeking it at difficult times in his life. When people and events threaten to engulf him, he would steal off to a lonely place to recover and rededicate himself to God. He encouraged his followers to do the same.

We need a quiet and lonely place for reflection. Even more so in this day and age. Often we live foolishly and recklessly, driven by stupid desires and imprisoned by selfish habits. We are surrounded by noise and activity which can lull us into a false sense of security. We are unable or unwilling to be alone, to be silent, to be still. And we wonder why we aren’t happy, why we don’t find it easy to get on with others, and why we find it difficult to be close to God.

We need quietness and a quiet place to stand on our own two feet before God and the world, and to accept full responsibility for our own lives. In a quiet place we can meet our demons, our anger, our addictions and our need for recognition and approval by really being touched by God’s love.

Thomas Merton the monk and theologian said that we don’t go into the wilderness to escape from others but to find them in God. ‘Only in solitude and silence can I find the gentleness with which I can love my brothers and sisters’.

Lent meetings this year will take place at The Gathering with our friends from Sheriff Hill starting on Tuesday, 3 March at 2pm. This year we will be looking at the book of Philippians. Please come along and enjoy the conversation and the tea, coffee and biscuits.

If anybody would like me to visit them or have a pastoral conversation then please don’t hesitate to contact me.

With good wishes and prayers.

God Bless
Huw