A new life requires a death of some kind; otherwise it is nothing new, but a shuffling of the same deck. Roger Housden

Photography by Stephen Wood

“Do not be worried and upset”, Jesus told them. “Believe in God and believe also in me”. There are many rooms in my Father’s house. John 14:1-2

A change of script

Maybe not surprisingly there is more than a hint of desperation about the disciples’ questions, "Where are you going?” "Can we not come too?" "Show us the Father". Jesus rolls up his sleeves and patiently explains again reiterating his commitment to them, to us: I’ll come back for you. Where I go you too will be.

Do I matter to God?

Maybe their concern is sourced in the question, What will become of me? Or put another way, Do we matter, to God?

Any authentic movement usually requires a break from the past – not because the past is bad, but because it is so difficult for a deeper truth to make itself known among the accretions* of habit and conformity. Roger Housden, the Poems of the Christian Mystics

How do we get out of the cycle of anxiety about our place, whether we belong, whether we are loved and more importantly, what will become of me? Maybe Jesus is saying trust in a greater love, a deeply committed love. Andrew Hook

* Accumulations. Yes, I had to look it up!