Come Away With Me: I Heard A Whisper Today
James Cathcart
April 15, 2024
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I Heard A Whisper Today
Hello! I’m James Cathcart from the Sanctuary First team and I’m delighted — and more than a little bit excited — to introduce the first of our new blog series Come Away With Me!
We will use these articles to create little pockets of space to come away and meet God in the middle of our day. They are an invitation to enter a holy space where we can shelter for a while in God’s presence.
Back in January, our minister Ruth Kennedy gave us a wonderful Message for The Year inspired by Song of Songs 2:10:
My beloved spoke and said to me,
“Arise, my darling,
my beautiful one, come with me.
She encouraged us to see this year as a year we can respond to God’s call to know him in deeper relationship:
"If you are looking for direction in life to discover your identity and purpose — why on earth you are on earth — this word is for you. Jesus says ‘Come away with me, make time and space with me and you will see and hear the songs to sing in your life that you are meant to sing’. These songs may be a metaphor and they may be literal! That is for you and God to know!”
How inspiring! When we come away with God, it is not to escape reality, it is rather to delve deeper into it, into the eternal love at the heart of the universe… God does not offer us escapism, a way of getting away from it all, God instead freely gives us a loving relationship, a friendship that encourages and inspires us, equipping us for the push and pull of everyday life.
This series plans to use the gifts of language, creativity and expression to create poetic, mindful, meditative, reflective and prayerful spaces where we can respond to God’s call to us.
I am delighted that this beautiful poem, I Heard A Whisper Today, kindly shared with us by Rev Anne Redpath, launches our new series. In these words Anne beautifully conjures a series of immersive and thought-provoking images in a contemporary psalm.
Take a moment to steady yourself, to come away with God, and begin…
I Heard A Whisper, Anne Redpath
I heard a whisper today
it lifted my heart
captured my soul
and gave me hope
that the tide is rising.
It is not quite time yet
to cast off and set sail
but time to make ready
and make room
to watch and wait
for the unmistakable sound
that the whisper
has become a shout
a bellowing beckoning
unrelenting call
to venture forth
roped together
three strands holding us fast
to a purpose
that throws caution to the wind
anchoring us only to Christ’s love
and there is a song on the wind
catching our breath
filling our lungs
drum beating our hearts
harness the wind
sing the song,
let courage and faith arise
let hope strengthen,
trust embolden,
anchoring us only to Christ’s love
Feel the strength,
know the truth
we are anchored in Christ’s love
with no safer place to be
when in a flimsy vessel
on open sea
taken to God knows where.
Feel the strength,
know the truth,
God knows where
and we will be carried
on the currents of his relentless love
to a longing people
the cargo in our hearts broken open,
contents spilling treasure on the shore,
our baskets emptied
ready to hold and treasure
all Christ offers to us there.
I heard a whisper today
it lifted my heart
captured my soul
and gave me hope
that the tide is rising.
Our sincere thanks to Anne Redpath for launching Come Away With Me!
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