You might have seen a few more cars on our motorways this weekend, loaded to the roof with duvets and saucepans. Or maybe you’ve helped struggling teens navigate the underground with suitcases twice their size. There’s a serious amount of young adult migration going on right now. Universities are starting up for the year and school leavers are being transformed into students. I've been working with students for the past decade and this time of year never gets boring.
It is amazing how much stuff we pack when we leave home that we end up not needing. It is a rare skill in this day and age to travel light. But with consumerism filling our rucksacks, perhaps the healthiest thing we can all do, is try and carry less stuff and share more. I wonder how much we really need?
Jesus told his first followers to leave their stuff behind when he sent them out on the road. He told them specifically not to take extra coats, bags, money, but instead to rely on community, to share meals and resources with those they’d meet. At university, you get told off for eating someone else’s cheese. Everyone labels their own milk. There are 6 woks in one house. We teach toddlers to share. I wonder when adults decided that lesson no longer applied?
Father God, help us to travel lighter, to share what we have with others, and to not get so afraid that we won’t have enough. Help us give and to receive and do it all with gratitude. Amen.
Blog taken from BBC Radio 4's 'Prayer For The Day': listen HERE to the broadcast (none of us were up at 5.43am after all!)
Photo by AP x 90 on Unsplash
