This is a Reflective Exercise from Marc Williamson, who has his own fab blog at https://www.remarcable.me.uk/.
For this space, you’re going to need a few things to hand:
2 marshmallows (or sweet sweets of your choice…)
2 slices of lemon (or shots of lemon juice, or something equally bitter…)
and perhaps a glass of water just to cleanse your palate in between!
What follows is a reflective exercise I have tried to do every year for the last 18 years, either at the start of the school year or the calendar year. It’s a practice I came across as I was led in it by my fellow youth worker in my first youth work job in 2004, and I find it a helpful way to look back, and look forwards, and to ground myself again in what I know about God as I seek to live this life I’ve been given.
In June 1997 The Verve released a song from their album “Urban Hymns” called “Bittersweet Symphony”. The lyrics are fascinating, and paint a picture of one understanding of life and how we seek to live it, ultimately recognising that life itself is a “Bittersweet Symphony”.
That notion is going to be our starting point for our reflection
“Cos it’s a bittersweet symphony this life.”
It’s important that we don’t shy away from the things that we struggle with in life, and we are not saying that turning to God means our struggles are in any way unimportant, or a result of sin or a lack of faith. As we journey into this practice we are bringing all of ourselves to God, recognising what we enjoy and what we struggle with, celebrating his presence in the sweet and the bitter, and fully aware that to have life in all its fullness is to experience both the bitter, and the sweet in the confidence of the presence of God’s love.
First up, I want you to think about the good things in life. I want you to imagine the perfect day, those happy moments in life.
If that day or those moments were a colour, what colour would they be? Why? How does it make you feel? (Was the sky blue? Was the sunset orange? Was the person you were with wearing a purple shirt?)
If that day or those moments were a smell, what smell would they be? Why? How does it make you feel? (Did you start the day with Bacon (always a good day!)? Were you at the beach with the smell of the sea? Perhaps you can remember the scent of the perfume of the person you were with?)
If that day or those moments were a song, what song would they be? Why? How does it make you feel? (Perhaps it was a song that was on the radio? Perhaps it was that song you danced to all night? Or perhaps it’s just a song that reminds you of a person or a place?)
As you think about those good times, I want you to pop a marshmallow into your mouth and enjoy the sweet… bring all those senses, memories and thoughts together and be grateful. In those moments it is perhaps easier for us to sing of the goodness of God (when we remember), to acknowledge his presence and the blessings in our life. 6: In this space, offer you own prayer of thanks for the goodness of God.
Feel free to drink some water to cleanse your palate (though you might not want to!).
Secondly, and this could be a difficult thing to do, I want you to think about the harder things in life. I want you to recall a moment of sadness or grief, or imagine the feeling of hurt or brokenness.
If that day or those moments were a colour, what colour would they be? Why? How does it make you feel? (Perhaps your colour is similar but darker… Perhaps it’s black and empty of colour and light… perhaps it’s a colour you associate with caution, warning, or danger…)
If that day or those moments were a smell, what smell would they be? Why? How does it make you feel? (Perhaps it’s a smell that turns your stomach… something you want to turn away from… something you trod in perhaps…)
If that day or those moments were a song, what song would they be? Why? How does it make you feel? (Perhaps it was a song that was on the radio? Perhaps it was that song you danced to all night? Or perhaps it’s just a song that reminds you of a person or a place?)
As you think about those harder times, I want you to pop a slice of lemon into your mouth and experience the bitter… bring all those senses, memories and thoughts together and allow yourself to feel. In those moments it is undoubtedly more difficult for us to sing of the goodness of God, or even to acknowledge his presence in our life. 10: In this space, offer you own prayer of anguish, offering your pain and sadness to God.
Feel free to drink some water to cleanse your palate (though you might not want to!).
We know the reality of the experiences of life. We can recall the good and the bad, and we can relate to the emotions and experiences within ourselves, and acknowledge the triggers that we might encounter daily. But I wonder:
If the last year or 18 months were a colour, what colour would they be?
If the last year or 18 months were a smell, what smell would they be?
If the last year or 18 months were a song, what song would they be?
We have our ideals, and we have our lived experiences. There aren’t many people who would have chosen to live the experiences we have over the last 18 months, and yet there will have been glimpses and glimmers in it all that’ll have brought sparks of joy or peace or hope. But there’s no doubt they have been difficult. There will have been those moments that tasted sweet, yet collectively and personally we will have had our fill of the bitter too.
The reality is that there aren’t those cleanly defined moments of sweet and bitter. We can’t compartmentalise them into orders or sizes based on our preferences. As life happens both the bitter and the sweet combine, and we need to find ways to live through the bittersweet.
That song that reminds us of the happy moments dancing with the person who is no longer with us; that smell that reminds us of a simpler time before our hurt; that vaccine that gives us our freedom, but came after the suffering and loss of so many; those daily moments where we can experience both joy and pain in the same instance. That is the bittersweet symphony of life, all those things coming together to give us our experience.
And as followers of Jesus we are not exempt from the bitter: We experience the pain alongside the freedom, the joy alongside the mourning. Indeed Jesus promised us that it wouldn’t be all sweet. Yet there is a promise that we can cling to, a promise that Paul writes in Romans 8 from his understanding of who Christ is and what he has accomplished. And as I read this promise to you now, I want you to take your remaining marshmallow and lemon and put them into your mouth at the same time. Allow the words you see and hear, and the sensations as you taste, to guide your thoughts:
“What shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
As we journey together into this new year, into the unknown of today, let alone tomorrow and beyond, we cannot assure ourselves of only the sweet, nor will we experience only bitter. They will come together, in different amounts. But the promise we can choose to cling to is the constant presence of God’s love, from which NOTHING can separate us.
In this space, offer your own prayers to God, acknowledging your justified fears of the bitterness that the future hold, and praying for eyes to see and appreciate the sweet it will also hold. Thank God for his ever-present love regardless of what comes our way. …
The Friday Fix 