LITTLE AND OFTEN

As well as my full-time job, I like to paint. As well as a Chaplain, I am a painter. Someone recently asked me where I find the time to paint. It’s a strange question really. After all, when does anyone get the time to do anything other than work? Reading for example or watching TV, sewing, playing golf? My response is, “little and often”.

Little and often is a principle I have grown to enjoy. The Bible refers to it as “redeeming the time”: “See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time.” – Ephesians 5:15-16 (King James Version). Or to put it another way, to make use of time. Those bits of time that we usually fill with watching the news or looking at our smaller screens or TV programmes that offer little to our overall wellbeing.

My paints are always ready, so is my canvas, for such times as I find myself able to spend 15-30 minutes or so in painting the background, or the outline, or whatever is simple and routine. I also have a chair where I can just sit and look and reflect on what I might want to change or continue. Little and often. I also like to play guitar, and so I always have a guitar on a stand and play it for a few minutes, little and often. The same rings true when training our puppy. Canine behaviourists say that little and often is far more beneficial than prolonged training. Consistency is the key.

The theme for Semester 2 and subsequent issue of Light Blue is: “From little things big things grow”. It has been an interesting and helpful theme. Like all good themes, the more we ponder them the more wisdom we receive from them. Another Bible verse advises that we: “Do not despise the day of small beginnings.” – Zechariah 4:10. This suggests that it is a human tendency to do so. Yet do not all things experience a humble start? The large oak starts from an acorn. The tallest building starts with an unseen foundation. We ourselves began with something resembling a small legless tadpole swimming towards a much sought-after prize.

Perhaps we should make more of the tiny, the small, the seemingly insignificant. Switching my camera to macro and focussing on a small piece of the natural world, like a leaf or a raindrop, reminds me to do just that. It draws from the well of wonder and promotes a silent internal swell of gratitude. Some might even call it worship, expressed in the most natural Cathedral settings, the great outdoors.

Little is a big deal. Little is packed with mystery and promise. Little is where big came from.

God is with you.

Rev Gordon Lingard Senior Chaplain