NO ESCAPE FROM REALITY

SATURDAY 28 AUGUST
As the metal gate slid open I had the overwhelming feeling of being released from captivity. Yesterday, I left St. Stephens for 6 hours being taken out by David and Hilary Roisetter (they are staying here having been helpers with St Stephens 14 years ago for several years). Why did I feel like that? Perhaps it was the thought of being able to have a cup of coffee or simply being able to step back into the reality of my everyday life rather than the routines and ‘restrictions’ of the last few days.

It does feel a little monastic here but not institutionalised, in fact they fight against being that, but certainly monastic in a spiritual sense. Get up for 7.30am, prayer, quiet time, physical exercise, work duties, eating, worship, bible study, opportunity for games, lights out at 10.00pm. It is always in a different order (apart from getting up and going to bed) but this has become my new reality. But it felt good to ‘get out’ and I had a great time.

We took the bus and train, walked through the huge air-conditioned shopping centre, went into Marks & Spencer (yes, it is exactly the same), Starbucks, the sea-front in Kowloon looking across to Hong Kong Island with its array of huge, skyscraper bank and finance towers, lit up office blocks with their huge neon signs advertising companies we all know, mirror glass and, as night fell, the nightly laser, light and music show which flashed all around us.

We sat watching all this from a restaurant high up in the YMCA Hotel (yes, Hotel, not Hostel) having enjoyed and feasted on an eat all you can buffet with fish, meats, salad, fruit and to finish it all, Bread and Butter pudding and custard and a coffee!

As I drank the last of my coffee I began to wonder what was the reality I had escaped to?

The world I usually inhabit might seem real but only because that is what I normally experience - well, not the HK skyline – but the reality of St. Stephens’s is closer to the truth for so many. The reality of life that faces up to what is wrong and seeks to deal with it, not in superficial ways or by running away and filling life with things that don’t last, but by openness, honesty, a deep practice of true community and the healing power of God to bring victory every day.

The Bible talks a lot about reality – All we like sheep have gone astray (Isaiah 53:6); ‘For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).
As the gate slid open at 10.00pm to let me back in, after a great 6 hours, it was hard, but I escaped back to reality. I washed in cold water before going to sleep on my 2 inch mattress and I thanked God that He is the true reality and I was back in this place once again. I knew already (after 4 days) that my time here will change my understanding of what is real, what really counts, what really matters, what my priorities need to be. Perhaps after my 15 days here I will have escaped to reality before I step out of the gate again.