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October 30, 2013 Chris McDonnell, UK Hey Jude! (Comments welcome here) |
One of the best songs from the Beatles catalogue must be ‘Hey Jude’. That
haunting opening verse……
“Hey Jude, don't make it bad
Take a sad song and make it better
Remember to let her into your heart
Then you can start to make it better”
You can listen to the whole song here:
And why start this week’s posting with reference to that lyric?
Well I am writing this piece on
Sunday evening in a small coastal town on the South coast of the County
of Devon here in England. Over the last few days a storm has been developing out
in mid-Atlantic which is expected to make landfall around 9pm
tonight, that is, in a couple of hours’ time. With tomorrow being the Feast of
St Jude, the media have named it the ‘St Jude Storm’. Hence the song link.
High seas and excessive winds are forecast through the coming hours of darkness.
Storms are the currency for a number of stories in both the Old and New
Testament, as my grandson James reminded me this evening, from the tossing
overboard of Jonah to appease the waves, giving us the powerful image of
Resurrection to be fulfilled in the narrative of Easter, later through the
Gospel account of the Lord asleep during the rough weather on the Sea of
Galilee, and, as recorded in the Acts, with the ship wreck of the Apostle Paul
off the coast of Malta.
The ocean is indeed a fearful place when the weather turns foul and small
vessels get tossed by huge seas and high winds. Maybe that is why such incidents
were chosen to teach us about trust. For most of us, thank goodness, the storm
at sea is not within our immediate experience, though all too tragically the
recent loss of life in the Mediterranean of asylum seekers has once again
highlighted the dangers of travel on Earth’s waters in ill prepared craft. as
did similar journeys of the boat people from Vietnam back in the 70s. However
for those living near the coasts of many countries, the damage caused by
hurricanes, typhoons and cyclones is all too real.
There are many other instances when we face situations that trouble us,
occasions personal to our families, and our own life story, when faith is tested
and the consequences of the experience asks questions that take us out of our
comfort zone. Then those oft repeated words “Do not be afraid” take on a
whole new meaning.
Meanwhile we await the landfall of Jude.
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