From the Heart

Bob Eyles

Description

50 reflections, each complete, 400 to 500 words in length and written over the course of a year - from July 2021 to July 2022 - a year of bowel cancer, stroke, covid 19 and macular degeneration for the author. 'Gut Responses'' to events, situations and opportunities experienced by the author in his semi rural New Zealand setting, as well as the more general world-situation. Written from a Christian perspective to encourage thoughtful responses on the part of readers to their own situations and life-experiences.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Religion
• Meditations

Informations

• Publié par: Xlibris NZ
• Date de parution: 18 septembre 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781664108028
• Langue: English

Extrait

FROM THE HEART











Bob Eyles



Copyright © 2022 by Bob Eyles.
ISBN:
Softcover
978-1-6641-0803-5
eBook
978-1-6641-0802-8

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Scripture quotations marked GNT are taken from the Good News Translation — Second Edition. Copyright © 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.



Rev. date: 09/15/2022






Xlibris
NZ TFN: 0800 008 756 (Toll Free inside the NZ)
NZ Local: 9-801 1905 ([phone] from outside New Zealand)
www.Xlibris.co.nz
845911



CONTENTS
Foreword
Introduction
An Ephemeral Community
Limits To Humanity
Who Should We Trust?
The Planet Fights Back
Litter
‘I Don’t Like Being Told What To Do’
Worship And The Unvaccinated
How To Disagree
Multi-Coloured Socks
The Impending Omicron Tsunami?
The Power Of Prayer
What Value, Old Age?
The New ‘Wild West’
What Price ‘Protest’?
It’s Who You Believe
Stress- Levels
Cycles And Interventions
The Elusiveness Of Time
Hospital
Unclean, Unclean
Eyes Right!
Into The Mists Of Time
Seasons Of Love?
‘Up To’
Amazing Stuff, Grass!
‘Before’ And ‘After’
Advertisments
The Waiting Game
What About The Men?
I Know Exactly...
Why Use A Small Word?
Qualifications
Never Give Up!
Upstairs, Downstairs
We Become ‘Untouchable’
Being Positive
Anything You Need?
Doubt
‘My Grace’
Perfection
Incompetence
Rest
Home
The New Earth
Where?
Brownian Motion
Windthrow
Worth
Pomp And Ceremony
Workaholism



FOREWORD
Over the course of my time at Levin Uniting Church, I have had the pleasure of getting to know and sitting under the informal mentorship of the Reverend Bob Eyles. While much of that was enjoyed over coffee and a yarn, either at his place or at a café on Oxford Street, for just over a year I have had an almost exclusive audience with the inner workings of Bob’s mind, in and through the reflections contained in this publication.
There is a certain wisdom in Bob’s writing, the likes of which a minister can only aspire to developing over the duration of his ministry. And there is also genuine spiritual insight that a minister can only aspire to, having lived a life of rubbing shoulders, drinking coffee, praying, and celebrating life with God’s people in all their wonderful variety. As you read, you may notice a pattern emerging, in which Bob shifts from general reflections to reflections of a more autobiographical nature. I believe that this is indicative not only of the Covid 19 times in which we all now live, when many of us have become more introspective as we contemplate life and death, but also of the health issues affecting Bob and those in his ‘congregation.’ As such, these letters touch on the fragility and vulnerability of life that affect us all, which only adds to the authenticity of the writer.
It excites me to know that Bob’s thoughtful and theologically attuned musings will make their way into more people’s hands, hearts, and minds. I pray that you would receive the gift of these musings for what they offer: biblical wisdom for an age and spiritual insight for a generation.
Brett Reid.
Ministry Intern, Levin Uniting Church.
11 th August, 2022.



INTRODUCTION
The reflections that follow were written over a period of just over a year; they represent ‘gut reactions’ to events or situations that occurred during that time and are presented in the order in which they were written. There is an autobiographical component to most reflections as the responses come from my life experience and indicate who I am and what I believe.
I spent a year teaching mathematics at Hutt Valley High School before finishing an M Sc degree and being recruited to the teaching staff of the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur. A Ph D followed and I returned to New Zealand and the staff of Victoria University of Wellington’s geography department. In 1982 I was called into the ministry of the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand and re-trained for 3 years in Dunedin. I served as minister of First Church, Invercargill and St Columba’s, Havelock North, before retiring from St Andrew’s Parish, Levin, in 2004. I then served St John’s Methodist Parish as part-time presbyter for 3 years and one year as a minister of Levin Uniting Parish.
My wife, Lois, and I live in an old house set in a large section with a patch of bush, a small orchard and two paddocks ‘mowed’ by our two alpacas. We are near the foot of the Tararua Mountain Range, about 90 km. north of Wellington.
In retirement I continue to act as chaplain to Reevedon Rest Home in Levin and to preach occasionally in my home parish. An operation for bowel cancer in July 2021 was followed by a stroke in April 2022 and a Covid19 infection. The reflections were mostly written when I was either recovering, or in isolation and were written for the sake of my own mental health, rather than for circulation. Friends have encouraged me to compile them into the publication before you.
Each reflection is complete in itself; subject matter is variable and so you can ‘pick and choose’ in your reading.
Bob Eyles
10 th August, 2022



AN EPHEMERAL COMMUNITY
I recently spent 6 days as a hospital patient – the longest stay in a public hospital in all my 82 years! The ward I was in was ‘choc full’ – a man died in a bed next to me and within an hour another bed occupied the space, and I was summarily discharged without warning as my bed space was needed! But during the six days I was impressed by the care I and the patients around me received from staff. A nurse was only a press of my bell away with extra pain relief always available, doctors and their retinues appeared regularly, blood pressures were read every four hours and we were encouraged to move about and to socialize as we each were able.
I was in a five bed room with opaque blue concertina curtains on rails separating the beds – curtains which could easily be opened or closed. We patients were all adults and of either gender - male and female, arranged in ‘any which way’; the curtains acted as a visual barrier and ensured a level of privacy, but voices carried and patients could all hear conversations with staff or visitors in other ‘cubicles’. The best time to sleep was late afternoon as the night hours were punctuated by voices of staff echoing through the ward and sudden noises, as objects were dropped or beds being shifted hit metal surfaces and as nurses came to take blood pressure readings or to answer bells. A couple of patients in my room had family arriving for breakfast, with one lady working on her lap top computer through the day! A highlight of each day was the visit of the personable male staff member taking orders for the next day meals.
A skilled and persistent nurse got me out of bed, it seemed almost immediately after my operation and overriding my assertions that I couldn’t possibly move! But by next day I was staggering around looking for a toilet. The five of us compared notes on how we were feeling each morning, with those who could walk visiting the bed spaces of those who couldn’t. Patients came and went but we quickly absorbed ‘newbies’ into our little fellowship. There was a 93 year old, the man who died was handicapped by blindness, I was a minister, there was a bus driver, a company director, a Maori lady, a retired social worker from Otaki... This lady was nearing the time of her discharge when she arranged to visit a patient in another ward; this did not happen because the lady she was to visit died – just hours after our own man had died. I did my ‘pastoral thing’ and prayed for her. The prayer was, of course, heard by the others; no one commented, she calmed down and even sent me a letter of thanks from home!
As I reflect on the six days, I am amazed at the sense of community that developed. There was no ‘leader’, we were all there because of health crises, the staff did not attempt to control us and limit what we could do so, in response to their trust, we – the patients – acted with restraint and common sense, respecting our over-worked nurses and one another. We all knew that our time in the ward would be temporary -this perhaps helped us relax and be ourselves. Temporary and ephemeral communities are part of our lives – is there something in my hospital experience that can help me develop a deeper understanding of ‘community’? I think so!
20 th July, 2021



LIMITS TO HUMANITY
Every four years, with the ‘Paralympics’ , questions such as the following are posed: ‘What makes a human being?’ , or , ‘When does a person cease to be a person?’ This year, in level 4 ‘lockdown’, with little to do except watch television, these questions become sharper. Does losing a limb or an organ to an accident of birth or to a knife, chainsaw, car crash or meningitis... make a person incomplete? What about downs syndrome or dementia?
We have watched ‘wheelchair rugby’, ‘wheelchair bas