Today was one of the full day sessions of the Ignatian  course, and the focus was on 'The Call of the King' - thinking about the Christ who calls us to follow.

The morning was a time of reflection on the first ten chapters of the gospel of Mark, and the photo is the  doodle thingy that emerged from so-doing. 

I was drawn to a question that ran along the lines of 'what do you learn about Jesus - and God - from what he does and how he does it' rather than what he says.

I seemed to detect three threads (I'm sure with more time I'd have found more)...

• a compassionate, kind Jesus who engages with broken people at a one-to-one level
• an irritable Jesus who gets annoyed with his followers when they don't 'get' it
• a very demanding Jesus who insists on being No. 1 in the lives, hearts and minds of his followers - Kingdom before kin, Cross before comfort.

I then wondered how these weave together to give a 'thicker' description of Jesus, or a richer understanding of who he was/is.

Some of the scribbles on my doodle relate not to this exploration, but arise from the reflection I've undertaken ahead of overview sermon on Mark tomorrow.

Much to mull over from the day, but for now it's feet up with knitting and kitties!