{"id":26878,"date":"2024-11-01T14:44:07","date_gmt":"2024-11-01T14:44:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ducklingtonchurch.org.uk\/?p=26878"},"modified":"2024-11-02T14:51:28","modified_gmt":"2024-11-02T14:51:28","slug":"letter-from-dave-adams-llm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ducklingtonchurch.org.uk\/?p=26878","title":{"rendered":"Letter from Dave Adams LLM"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p>One year ago 7 people presented themselves before the Bishop for confirmation, a ceremony in which they publicly declare their faith.&nbsp; Last month<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ducklingtonchurch.org.uk\/?ctc_sermon=the-seasons-of-life\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> Lauren shared a little<\/a> of what that meant for her.&nbsp; She spoke with such enthusiasm and joy about the opportunity&nbsp; to show the church and the world that she was committed to God.&nbsp; \u201cI just felt whole\u201d she said \u2026 I now feel comfortable in my faith.\u201d&nbsp; \u201cI love coming to church, it is a lovely, lovely place, so warm and welcoming.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Things have changed for her since the confirmation.&nbsp; Prayer is no longer forced.&nbsp; Instead she shoots off \u2018arrow prayers\u2019 whenever she is moved to.&nbsp; This feels \u201cvery natural\u201d.&nbsp; Not that there aren\u2019t occasional doubts but now she knows that God is with her in her trials.&nbsp; She has learned patience, knowing things will become clear later.<\/p>\n<p>Two songs come to mind as I reflect on Lauren\u2019s story.&nbsp; Wannabe by The Spice Girls expressed the feelings of so many who long for a lasting relationship.&nbsp; \u201cI\u2019ll tell you what I want, what I really, really want.\u201d But what they really, really want comes with conditions.&nbsp; Do we really know what we really, really want?&nbsp; How many times do we feel let down, even betrayed, when what we thought we wanted doesn\u2019t satisfy us.<\/p>\n<p>There is a spiritual practice, sometimes called the \u201cWelcome Prayer\u201d that inspires an attitude of grateful acceptance for whatever life brings us, letting go of our need for control, affection or approval.&nbsp; Lauren\u2019s story reminded me of a hymn we occasionally sing that is based on Psalm 34:<br \/>\nThrough all the changing scenes of life<br \/>\nin trouble and in joy<br \/>\nthe praises of my God shall still<br \/>\nmy heart and tongue employ.<\/p>\n<p>So thank you, Lauren, for reminding us of what we really, really need.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One year ago 7 people presented themselves before the Bishop for confirmation, a ceremony in which they publicly declare their faith.&nbsp; Last month Lauren shared a little of what that meant for her.&nbsp; She spoke with such enthusiasm and joy about the opportunity&nbsp; to show the church and the world that she was committed to&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":6760,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,20,92],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-news","category-prayer","ctfw-has-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ducklingtonchurch.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ducklingtonchurch.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ducklingtonchurch.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ducklingtonchurch.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ducklingtonchurch.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26878"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ducklingtonchurch.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26878\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26879,"href":"https:\/\/www.ducklingtonchurch.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26878\/revisions\/26879"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ducklingtonchurch.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ducklingtonchurch.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ducklingtonchurch.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ducklingtonchurch.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}