🌞 R&R - your *exclusive* essay and recommendations from Abby King

Welcome to R&R!
Your *exclusive* monthly reflection and reading recommendations to nourish your soul.

Picking Up the Pieces

O God, gather me now to be with you, as you are with me.

- Ted Loder
 

I listened to an interview with Sarah Bessey recently, where she described the comfort and healing she found in the Eucharist during a season of disorientation and distress. It resonated strongly with me, as the depth and richness of communion has become increasingly meaningful in my own season of coming apart. When my world is in disarray, this simple act of remembrance draws me back to Jesus time and time again.
 
The symbols of bread and wine serve as a microcosm of the human experience: the wholeness and the tearing apart, the hunger and the provision, the healing and the wound. Wheat that once flourished in the fields is crushed to nourish our bodies. Grapes that once thrived on the vine are trampled to quench our thirst.
 
The body of Christ, broken for you. The blood of Christ, shed for you.
 
//
 
The story of Jesus feeding five thousand seems to me a foreshadowing of the Lord’s supper; a public meal Jesus arranges for a crowd anticipating the private meal he will later arrange for his closest friends. Jesus takes the bread, blesses it, breaks it and gives it away, encapsulating the narrative arc of his life – and ours, if we are his followers – in four verbs: taken, blessed, broken, given.

Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ? (I Cor. 10:16)
 
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The bread and wine invite us to remember before anything else, that we are loved and accepted. Before anything we do, or anything we say, before anything we achieve or accomplish, we are chosen as precious children of God. In communion we are also invited to remember our shared humanity and our common needs: to be fed, to be welcomed, to be forgiven, to belong. We are invited to remember our connection with the earth we depend on to sustain us. We are invited to remember our God – Creator, Saviour, Comforter – in whose hands we are all held together.
 
//

When the crowd of five thousand have finished eating, Jesus gives his disciples this instruction:
 
“Gather up the leftover fragments that nothing may be lost.” So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten (John 6:12-13).
 
I’m curious about this part of the story. Why is Jesus interested in the leftovers? Does he just want to show the extent of his provision? Or is there something deeper for us to discover here?
 
If I let the text read me, I realise there are parts of my story I don’t want to be gathered. There are wounds I feel ashamed of, pieces I would rather abandon to be scattered to the four winds. I don’t want to own the uncomfortable, the painful or the vulnerable.
 
But the Spirit reaches out to those discarded pieces with tenderness and care. She gathers them in, handling our stories with kindness and love, nurturing us back to wholeness in order that ‘nothing may be lost.’

Instead of your shame, you will receive a double portion,
and instead of disgrace, you will rejoice in your inheritance,
And so you will inherit a double portion in your land
and everlasting joy will be yours. (Is. 61:7)
 
Our broken pieces may be terrible and terrifying, but as Sarah Bessey explains, our suffering is holy to God. It takes courage to let the Spirit tend to your wounds, to own your own story, as Brené Brown puts it; to acknowledge the reality and face the pain. But this vulnerability is the gateway to healing. It is the chaos over which the Spirit broods to birth something new; it is a merciful womb in the wilderness. This is holy ground, the birthplace of resurrection, where ashes are turned into beauty and sorrow gives way to joy. 

As I write today, I feel the overwhelming kindness and compassion of the Holy Spirit for you. She is the wise comforter and faithful friend who will never abandon you. She knows exactly what you need at this moment. She is always loving, always present, always calling each part of you back home.

Let's pray.
 
A blessing for your wounds
May you know, deep within your heart,
That you are the beloved child of God,
Precious and chosen by the Creator from the beginning of time.
 
May you have the courage
To let Jesus gather all your broken pieces,
Knowing you are held together safely in his hands.
 
May you know comfort and hope
As the Holy Spirit tends to your wounds
With compassion, gentleness and care.
 
And may you taste in the bread and the wine
The coming kingdom of the God
Who makes all things new.

Reading Recommendations
This month I have a more eclectic list of things I'm recommending - some to listen to, some to follow and some to pre-order. One of the best things you can do for an author is to pre-order their books - it is so supportive and encouraging, and that's my heart in recommending these forthcoming books to you.

The Eternal Current Podcast, with Aaron Niequist and guests

This podcast is currently blowing my mind. Episode 2 is the above-mentioned interview with Sarah Bessey, which is beautiful, honest, hopeful and incredibly insightful. You will not want to miss it. Episode 4 is also brilliant - it's an inspiring look at the kingdom of God, with Father Michael Sparough, including a really powerful meditation at the end that just broke me open to feel the presence of the Holy Spirit. 

Things Above Podcast, with James Bryan Smith

Another podcast that will do you good and help you to stay focused on Jesus. The recent interview where William Paul Young, author of The Shack, discusses his thinking about who God is and how we describe God, is brilliant and so worth your time.

Try Softer: A Fresh Approach to Move Us Out of Anxiety, Stress, and Survival Mode - And into a Life of Connection and Joy, by Aundi Kolber

If you're not already following Aundi on social media, get on it straight away! She is a qualified therapist who loves Jesus and who offers kindness, wisdom and support for our journeys to wholeness. I'm really excited for her upcoming book, Try Softer, which you can pre-order at the link above.

This Too Shall Last: Finding Grace When Suffering Lingers, by K.J. Ramsey

I'm really looking forward to this book by therapist and writer, K.J. because I know it will be beautiful, deep and wise. K.J. explores suffering from a very personal perspective and helps us to find God in the middle of our hard things. She is also a kind, authentic and encouraging person. If you want to make your social media feeds a better place, you need to be following K.J. 

Miracles and Other Reasonable Things: A Story of Unlearning and Relearning God, by Sarah Bessey

I love Sarah Bessey's writing. She thinks deeply, doesn't shy away from difficult questions and expresses it all with the pen of a poet and the heart of a pastor. I'm excited to read her latest work. Pre-order at the link above. 
 

And finally...

It's a pleasure to have you here, as always! Feel free to hit reply to this email if you want to get in touch. 

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With love and gratitude,
Abby

P.S. I have just started work on my very first book proposal - eek! So if you'd like to pray for me, I'd really appreciate it!