Sometimes, one must just be still, listen and not speak. This apparently, is the most valuable form of communication. One of my managers once reminded me that I have two ears and one mouth for a reason. That day he also said to me: I do not speak often, but when I do, listen to what I say. I was in a spot of trouble with him then, but yes, I did learn the lesson. Prayer is good but can so easily also turn into a one-sided conversation. Unless you shut up, and listen, you may not hear God’s voice when it then does speak to you. I have fortunately come out of my quiet period from last week, and my ears were tuned, my soul receptive to hear the message, even if it was delivered by the most eclectic selection of envoys.

The first of these prompts came from my very good SPF (Short Portuguese Friend). She sent me a short video clip. It was of Joel Osteen saying: The reason you don’t have peace, is that your mind stays on the problem. Make a switch, he says, think positive. Joel is a Prosperity Theologist, who believes that reward of material gain is the will of God. This brings me to another man of God. This one, however, decided to forsake all worldly goods. He did not have much prosperity to forsake in the end. Life took care of that for him.

The very well know song: It is well with my soul, was penned by Horatio Spafford. Horatio was a very successful and wealthy attorney, property investor, husband, and father of 5 children. Sometimes, God pulls a “Job” on you, as Horatio was to discover. (That is Job, as in the unfortunate character in the Bible who was left to suffer so much.) First, his young son died, he then lost his property portfolio during the great fire of Chicago. Even then, insurance companies were sneaky, and he did not recover from the loss. To step away from all this, he decided to travel to England with his wife and 4 daughters. Wife and girls went on ahead, and yes, their ship sank. Only his wife survived the tragedy. At the pinnacle of this tragedy, he wrote that well known hymn. In the end, he moved away from material success and started a life long spiritual pilgrimage, starting The Overcomers in Jerusalem, and through that ministry, gained the trust of Christians, Jews and Muslims. He died fairly young at hardly 60 years of age, but in the end, he told us himself that “it is well with my soul.”

Back to Joel, and his peace. Peace – internal and external peace, is related to it being well with my soul. That old prophet Jeremiah tells us in the book of Ecclesiastes: God makes all well with my soul, even when my circumstances are not well. Jeremiah is sometimes referred to as the weeping prophet. From his name derived the English word jeremiad, meaning a lamentation or mournful complaint.  He is not to be confused with the other Jeremiah: Jeremiah, who was a bullfrog This is one of those accidental hit songs for an American group from the 70’s, called Three Dog Night. The name of the band apparently has reference to an Aboriginal urban legend that has one sleeping with one Dingo on a cold night, 2 when even colder, and 3 Dingoes on a colder than cold night. Had Colin and I been a band, we would have been the Fat Cat Band, because that is what keeps us snug on cold winter nights (even if he does only have 3 legs).

Strangely, the catalyst that made me realise that it is indeed well with my soul, was respect. A good few years ago, I had a similar experience. I had been through a bit of a turbulent time professionally. Most of my professional life was spent as a contracted worker in the services industry and often I had limited choice as to where I would be placed. At this time, I was then moved to a contract that ended up being such a healing time for me as a person. At this contract, I was surrounded by just very ordinary, salt-of-the-earth people. There were no agendas, no long knives. They were just a really good team of people where each one had the next one’s back. I still maintain a close friendship from this time. My new life down here is, as I have said before, showing me whole new skills sets. Where I had never interacted with construction characters before, I am now. I look at these new people in my life with so much respect, admiration and due regard for their qualities and abilities. Traits that one could never have guessed at, had you passed them on the street or in the shop. They remind me of that other salt-of-the-earth people. I have found their coastal cousins.

We all have talents. We can all be good at something. We may not have equal talent, but we have equal opportunity to develop our unique talent. Albert Einstein is quoted as saying: I have no special talent; I am just passionately curious. He would have made a good Meerkat – they are known for being curious, always on their spindly little hind legs, necks stretched out. (Mongoose, for those other cousins.)

I like this new me. The one that places less emphasis on material prosperity, but rather more on my own spiritual pilgrimage. I have been offered the opportunity to find myself. When I set out on this journey, I had hopes of improving a vital relationship in my life, one that I felt I needed. Now I know that chances of that happening is slim, yet in reaching this unfortunate conclusion, my soul feels liberated sufficiently to be well, even if there is still that hint of regret.

Another message came through this morning. As I was drafting this Cape Crawl, Colin sent on to me an email from one of his friends. It concluded with this prayer:

Father, I will not live my life looking into the rear-view mirror. I choose to look ahead with confidence and assurance that You will make a way for me and turn things around.

As always, there is a song for that. Yup, you guessed it. A song by my “secret obsession” – Meat Loaf. (The band, not the meal.)

Meat Loaf sang about images in the rear-view mirror. His was a reference to how memories can distort time, how it is not easy to let go of what you cannot forget. Steve Harvey said: You can’t drive your car looking in the review mirror.

Never blame the messenger for the message. I was sent an unlikely bunch: Joel Osteen, Horatio Spafford, the weeping Jeremiah, Steve Harvey, and Einstein himself, served up with a portion of Meat Loaf. God sent them to deliver this particularly important message to one little me: “Whatever my lot, You have taught me to say: It is well with my soul”.