Vicars letter - 8th November 2024

Rev. Summer Benton

Kia ora All Saints, 

​Mindfulness is a concept that is talked about quite a lot at the moment, and rightfully so. The practice of mindfulness has been linked to improved mental health outcomes for a large variety of issues. The best definition of mindfulness I have is the practice of noticing what is happening while it’s happening; the art of staying in the moment. Mindfulness is critical to our physical and mental wellbeing because without it we miss what God is doing in and around us. If our minds are constantly ruminating in the past or projecting to the future, we will struggle to feel a stir of the Holy Spirit or notice a need around us. We will also be unable to respond to the world from a place of peace like Jesus called us to. 

Despite me talking about mindfulness quite a lot in my practice and understanding all the reasons why it’s something we should strive for I struggle to stay mindful myself. Our world makes it difficult, really; there’s just so much going on all the time. But every once in a while God nudges me towards a noticing and reminds me that he’s there with me. That happened on my run the other day. I was struck by the beauty around me in ways that I often overlook. Mindfulness also guides us towards noticing the not so beautiful as well. It helps us to open our eyes to the suffering of the world and reminds us of our desperate need for Jesus. 

In our lives, and I imagine for many of you, things seem to be gearing up for a bit of crazy business. The end of the year and Christmas always seems to bring that. Yet if we’re not careful, that business will prevent us from sitting in the miracle of Jesus’ birth. We are only a few weeks away from the start of Advent, which as you all know is a season where we aim to sit in hope and expectation of Jesus’ coming. But I want to encourage you to not wait until the first Sunday of Advent to begin those practices of hope and expectation. Let’s start it now. Let’s take a breath before our schedules ramp up and centre ourselves on the bigger picture – what this is really all about. Let’s look around at the world and notice the beauty and allow that beauty to stir in us a renewed sense of Hope for the restoration that comes with Jesus. And let’s open our eyes to the suffering as well. Not in a way that crumbles us, but in a way that reminds us that we all have a deep and desperate need for a Saviour and the Church has a job to do in the world. 

Ngā Mihi Nui, 
Summer