‘Feed Me’ – Reef

Tom writes:

Over the summer we moved location, and I started ministry in a new location. Both those things are stressful. We have also been adjusting to becoming grandparents (see one of my previous Fixes), and the new role has been more challenging owing to a variety of unseen factors. So it is that, three months after moving, two months into starting the new role, I was feeling ready for a break. Thankfully, we had planned for this and booked some holiday for the half-term. We had originally thought we might escape for some autumn sun, but when we came to making bookings we realised that might not work. So instead, we booked a week in a self-catering lodge with a hot-tub and access to a heated swimming pool in the Mendips between Wells and Bath.

It was only in going through the process of making this booking that I realised that I was also feeling homesick. Online, my moniker is MendipNomad. There are people who have known me by that name for years before ever meeting me in person and using my real name. Anyone who knows me on here will be aware of my Somerset connections. Yet the second part of that moniker is my main trait – I am a nomad. Yet this nomad was homesick.

These feelings were even more greatly highlighted when I managed to snag last-minute tickets for us to see Reef play the UEA Union on the tour marking the 30th anniversary of their debut album, Replenish. I moved to Somerset in 1994, and 1995 marked not just my first attendance at the Glastonbury Festival but Reef’s, on the back of the release of their first album. Not only that, I knew folk who knew the boys (it’s now lads and lass, and Amy is a kickass guitarist!), or at least some of them. While their full roots are mixed, Reef are definitely a Glastonbury band (the town, not just the Festival), with connections both there and in neighbouring Street. Heck, there aren’t many globally known bands who play gigs at Glastonbury Town Hall!

So that evening we made our way over to the campus, grabbed some food, got a drink, and caught the end of their support act. Then came the quiet reworking of the stage. Then the quiet anticipation as the roadies took their leave and the dry ice rolled out. Then the drawn-out opening chords of “Feed Me” hit, and so did the joy and relief and nostalgia and recognition that I was beginning to run on empty and needed feeding.

It marked the beginning of a fortnight of feeding and replenishment –emotionally, spiritually, physically. The following week included a ministerial retreat, and the week after that we jumped in the car and headed West, to roads and places engrained in my soul. We relaxed in the hot tub, we walked in the hills, we viewed art in Bath, we shopped in Street, and we ate in Wells (at a lovely, recently opened Italian in the old Post Office – if you’re nearby, try it out, you’ll be well fed!).

We all need to eat, literally and figuratively. We all become washed out and drained, and need to replenish ourselves. I could use this opportunity to note God’s command to engage in sabbath, or the way in which Jesus is frequently engaging with people at the dinner table. But really, that’s not my point, it’s simply an aside from the joy having been able to return home, musically and physically, for just a short while, and to be fed and replenished in order to head back out on the journey of life and ministry ready for the next steps on the way.

I pray that whenever you find yourself exhausted and in need, the resources to be replenished and fed are available to you as they were to me. And if you’re feeling that way right now, then know it’s okay to step aside and seek your own replenishment.

Find out more about Tom’s beloved Reef at https://www.reeftheband.com/