The One Day and the Thousand Days

The One Day and the Thousand Days
Psalm 84

Each of the churches to which I belonged as a minister in England used to have something like a retreat each year—not a business-focused retreat (the connotation that often attaches to the word retreat in the United States) but a weekend or a week in which the community focused on its relationship with God. Obviously the congregation focused on God and on its relationship with God for an hour or so each Sunday, but these retreats gave people extended time to do so outside their everyday work and life concerns. There were often times when the congregation as a whole moved forward in their understanding and commitment, and times when individuals moved forward. There would be a sobriety, even a sadness, in the air as people packed their bags and climbed into their cars to go home, for they knew (or at least felt) that the sense of God’s involvement with us that they had while they were away could not be maintained when they returned to work and life concerns...