As Pants the Hart

Psalm 42 &43

As pants the hart for cooling streams
When heated in the chase,
So longs my soul, O God for thee,

And thy refreshing grace.

N Tate & N Brady

We often sang this hymn during our daily school assembly(1) when I was in high school. It seemed so irrelevant. There were few, if any deer in West Wales and there definitely was no shortage of water. Also if they meant a deer why didn't they say so? Since then I have visited Houston Zoo on a Texan summer day and can appreciated the deer's desperation.

In my mind I picture the stream wandering through a green meadow and a deer idly quenching his thirst. The hope of the refrain of these two psalms (which were written as one) sings in my heart. The stream of living water flows from the living God to relieve the drought of my soul.

There have been times when I have wandered through the desert where the water could not flow, times when I did not think that I needed God, of when nothing seemed to go right and my life was disintegrating around me. Jesus lead me back to the clear bubbling brook. He placed me in situations where he could act through the people around me. They were Christians who heeded his prompting.

Sometimes my stream passed through dark forests. I could hear the crystal waters and sip their abundant supply although all around seemed black. The nights after Matthew died and I awoke to a wet pillow oblivious that I had spent the night crying. The stream guided me through the despair of the night; I was comforted and supported by the presence of the living water. I was not alone, Christ was with me and so were my Christian friends, ministering to my daily needs.

Psalm 42 is now one of my favorite psalms. Fortunately I have not experienced the same rejection and oppression as the Psalmist but I can associate with his longing for his God. "Why are you downcast, O my soul?" Is there a refreshing stream on the horizon? Hope in God and He will find you. Praise him for his salvage work. Be a stream of Christ's love in another's desert.

(1)Yes it was in the days when schools were small enough to gather together in one room.

This was written for the Holy Spirit Episcopal Church Advent Meditation Book 1996

Too Much To Do

(Mark 5:21-43)
Me: Lord, How do you expect me to get through today? Everywhere I look there are things waiting for me to pick up, letters to write, emails to reply to , laundry and ironing to do, yard to weed. How can you, an itinerant bachelor begin to understand the pressures in my life? You had no home or daily schedule, you ran your own life, you were not pushed along by your family requirements.

Jesus: How about the time when I was gong to the synagogue ruler's house to heal his daughter? We were struggling to get through the crowd when someone touched my jacket in a special way. I felt as if I had performed a miracle. I had to stop to find out who had such faith. Peter and the rest of the gang said that I was stupid, why worry about someone touching your jacket? At last I found her and and as I looked into her eyes I knew that she had found peace and healing. We were still talking when a messenger arrived to say that the little girl had died and that they had no need of me now. I insisted that we went on to the house as originally planned. I could not disappoint Jairus. He only needed a little encouragement to believe that his precious daughter would wake from her heavenly sleep. Those awful wailing women had got to the house before us. They could go! They would not believe that I could overcome death. well I suppose it was there business to wail and I was putting them out of a job.
You know what happened. And I know what it is like to be run by events so I can sympathize with you about your day.

Now what are you going to do next?

At all times sing Allellulia (yes even in Lent) and give thanks for all the events and opportunites in your life, even for the full laundry hamper- where would you be without those people.....


This is based on a meditation which I wrote for the Lenten Meditation Book in 1996

Bread and Yeast

1 Corinthians 5 : 1-8

I make bread. Two or three loaves week, without a bread machine.

Here is the apporoximate recipe.

3.5 cups of flour ( whatever sort you like, currently I use 2 whlemeal, 1 rye and .5 white)
about 1 teaspoon dried yeast
2 tablespoons oil
about 10 fl ozs warm water - feels just right to your finger

Put the flour in a bowl and sprinkle the yeast on top. Mix with a spoon to blend.
Make a well in the middle and add about half the water and all the oil. Stir with a wooden spoon untill all the liquid is absorbed. Add more water graually until a stiff dough is formed. It should not be sticky and not cling to the sides of the bowl. Dry in good.
Keep mixing and pound the dough with the spoon for a minute or two.
Leave for about hour an hour or more- just your convenience,
Grease 1lb baking tin (pound can pan).
Flour a board/countertop- wherever you want to knead the bread (about 1-2 tbs of flour)
Turn the dough out and knead I usually do this by drawing the sides into the middle until I am bored or run out of time.
Roll the dough into a sausage to fit the pan.
Bake 400- 425ish fro 40-45 minutes.

The problem is I like yeast in my bread and St Paul says that I should just stick to flour and water. It is certainly true that too much yeast does spoil a loaf and one's digestion. It is also true that a little yeast goes a long way. 3.5 cups of flour and a scarce teaspoon of yeast, that is an almost negligible amount of yeast yet it makes the whole loaf rise.
What little traits do I have that are pervading my thinking and perverting the flour of my life from becoming a good wholesome loaf? And what is a good wholesome loaf?