Stereotyping

I’ve just had a lovely walk with my dog in the sunshine here in the South Downs in England. When it is sunny there is nowhere I would rather be as it is home and I have made it so for the past 25 years. The birds are singing and I sunbathe on the benches while my dog pants gently at my side, waiting for me to throw her ball.

I started to reflect on how much I enjoy my new freedom of being retired. No rush and plenty of time to admire the scenery and just enjoy being alive. More than that though, I don’t have to brace myself for another day in the office.

Ever since I can remember, I have never enjoyed being with groups of people and feeling trapped in a building for a set amount of time. I didn’t enjoy school and it set a pattern for my life. That Sunday evening feeling when you feel so miserable because Monday is coming and another week of torture, followed me into my working life. I could never quite settle in a job, not because there was any problem with the work, but I felt like I was in prison and couldn’t get rid of that feeling.

Unfortunately not everyone fits into society neatly. We are all individuals and have unique needs and characteristics. People who do fit in can’t always understand this as they find it all so easy. It is understandable that you can’t always deal with the problems that arise through not fitting into a box as the way society is structured, demands. I believe it is getting easier as we are starting to embrace this idea of individuality more and hopefully will be able to accommodate the different needs of individuals better as time goes on.

As always, my relationship with God has helped me through very rough times and I know that I am never alone when I suffer. He embraces us just as we are and loves us just as we are, every nut and bolt of us.

There are some beautiful lines in psalm 139, one of my favourite psalms that I read when I need to remind myself of how much God loves me:

O Lord, you have searched me and known me.
² You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
    you discern my thoughts from far away.
³ You search out my path and my lying down,
    and are acquainted with all my ways.
⁴ Even before a word is on my tongue,
    O Lord, you know it completely.
⁵ You hem me in, behind and before,
    and lay your hand upon me.
⁶ Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
    it is so high that I cannot attain it.

⁷ Where can I go from your spirit?
    Or where can I flee from your presence?
⁸ If I ascend to heaven, you are there;
    if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.
⁹ If I take the wings of the morning
    and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
¹⁰ even there your hand shall lead me,
    and your right hand shall hold me fast.
¹¹ If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
    and the light around me become night,”
¹² even the darkness is not dark to you;
    the night is as bright as the day,
    for darkness is as light to you.

¹³ For it was you who formed my inward parts;
    you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴ I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
    Wonderful are your works;
that I know very well.
¹⁵     My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
    intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
¹⁶ Your eyes beheld my unformed substance.
In your book were written
    all the days that were formed for me,
    when none of them as yet existed.
¹⁷ How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God!
    How vast is the sum of them!
¹⁸ I try to count them—they are more than the sand;
    I come to the end—I am still with you.

God bless you and I hope that you find a way through the struggles you face in your life with God’s help.