leaping forward

As some of you know, I enjoy a practice called Interplay. Interplay is ‘a creative, active way to unlock the wisdom of the body. It is a group activity that uses a number of ‘forms’, physical, verbal and musical, to enable connection with our selves and our community through play. There is a variant of one of these forms that goes like this... Participants are encouraged to choose a place in the room and move towards it with great intent, but moving only very slowly, heel to toe. This is how we often move in life towards goals on which we have set our hearts.  But as we all know, life has a way of disrupting those kinds of plans and movements.  So, there is another variant of this form, in which participants are invited simply to move slowly as before and just see where they end up and when it seems right to stop. This goal-less movement reflects something of what actually happens in life when we thought we were doing something else. A final variant of this game, invites participants to move slowly and just occasionally take a leap forward, perhaps celebrating that with a whoop. It is great fun, and illustrates how often we forget to celebrate our leaps forward and how much pleasure can be derived from celebrating, even when we do not have a particular goal in mind, and only recognise after it has happened that a leap forward has occurred. Sometimes indeed we may find that the leap has not been forward, but perhaps sideways or even backwards and no less a cause for celebration...

---

One of our great God-given gifts as human beings is the ability to reflect – to look back over the road we have travelled and be able to see in hindsight where the leaps forward have been. The benefit of a month, or a year or a decade or three of hindsight reveals leaps that we never recognised at the time.  At the time indeed they may have felt like times of wilderness, suffering or just dogged keeping on, keeping on. Once seen however, it is never too late to celebrate, to give thanks and to recommit ourselves to the onward journey with renewed courage and faith.

The phrase a ‘leap of faith’ is falsely attributed to the theologian and philosopher Kierkegaard. As Kierkegaard himself pointed out the leap that allows us to have faith in God, is itself induced by faith – we cannot have one without the other. As we trace the moments of leaping forward in our spiritual journey therefore, we are also tracing the moments of faith – the gifted moments when we can discern the presence of the divine. Such moments are to be treasured and celebrated even as they enable us to take the next leap forward.

In our time of silence you may like to reflect back in God’s presence on your journey of faith, celebrating those moments where you have leapt forward in understanding, in practice and in depth of relationship. You might think of each one as like a precious pearl, to be strung along a rosary of thankfulness. Hold each one in your mind’s eye, giving thanks for all that it taught you about yourself and God; and as you move to the next acknowledge that it acted as the springboard for fresh exploration. And invite God to gift you with the faith that will take you into your next leap forward. Amen.

by Penny Jones, for Sanctus contemplative gathering @MiltonAnglican,
Saturday 29 February 2020.