Thursday, February 19, 2009

Thursday February 19, 2009

When God gives any man wealth and possessions, and enables him to enjoy them, to accept his lot and be happy in his work—this is a gift of God. Ecclesiastes 5:19-20.

Tomorrow we attend the funeral of the husband who committed suicide last week. In some ways a fitting end to our visit to England. The work has been heavy but is finally winding down—the next folk have an empty house for three weeks! This visit has finally assuaged our nostalgia for the old country—we are feeling all the reasons we decided to emigrate in the first place. The traffic is horrendous and we are only just beginning to feel warm as the weather here warms up. Oh to be in Canada to feel warm again!

That is not to say this visit has not been enjoyable. Meeting up with the great folk we got to know a year ago; perhaps visiting for the last time and wrapping up our desire to see the places of our younger days; mingling with what is now a different and dogged culture, and above all the reunion with so many of our family on old and familiar soil; all this has been a experience with memories for a lifetime.

This truly has been a gift of God. To find the joys in the mundane and often difficult areas of life is a gift of God. We do indeed have wealth and possessions compared with most of the world, but to enjoy them when so many don’t: this is a gift of God. To have those special happy times together is also a gift of God. Whatever we make of it, life is a gift of God.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Tuesday February 17, 2009

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart. Jeremiah 1:5.

The family are all home to various parts of the world, the house load is winding down and now we have the memories for a life time and about 2000 pictures between us to help us remember. We are overwhelmed with the graciousness of God to let us have this special time together. But then he knew all about us before we were born, all the joys and sorrows that would accompany us on our earthly pathway. I would rather live with this knowledge—in good times and in bad—than in a solitary lost existence somewhere in the universe.

To live without God is to live as an orphan, bereft of any identity or ultimate knowledge of the reality and substance of life, and also no knowledge of what is beyond this life. My apologies for coming back over the last few blogs to death, but this is where the rubber meets the road. Either we have the assurance of security for the future or we don’t and this is where it shows. Someone facing a terminal illness recently asked the question: “Where am I going?” When God incarnate in Christ has done so much to reassure us, the ultimate tragedy is not knowing.

But it also counts where we are now. The events of the last few weeks, in spite of the heavy load at times, will rank as one of the great highlights of this life. And it is all the more meaningful knowing he knew all about it, rejoiced in our happiness, and also has all those pictures to reminisce with us when we are all together again permanently.

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Sunday February 15, 2009

Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. Matthew 6:20.

It’s always been said that you cannot take anything with you when you die. But this verse suggests that you can send it on ahead! Certainly in a time of financial crisis, the loss of earthly wealth is hardly the same tragedy if you have already started saving in the bank that will never need bailing out. But the question always arises, what to deposit there? It is certainly not money; in fact, a later verse suggests that love of money is a barrier serving God.

That, of course, does not include the need of money for the essentials of life: food, shelter and clothing. The tragedy of the current recession is the huge number of people worldwide who are being denied those essentials because of the greed of those in the banking systems that caused the current crisis. If it is possible to send money on ahead it would be to use it to alleviate that lack of resources as well as all the other suffering that this world tolerates. After all, even a glass of water given to a person in need, Christ considers is given to him.

But in the wider context of the passage I have quoted from, it is not the money itself which is the problem, but rather prestige. Jesus continually criticised those who sought places of influence, particularly at the expense of others. And while money can buy almost anything, its greatest purchasing power is for prestige and influence over others. This is the pride of life that the Bible abhors, and we don’t have to be rich to seek it. Ambition for personal gain can be a seductive motive in any of us.

On a seemingly irrelevant note, there is a continuing conflict over the “no God” bus advertising on both sides of the Atlantic. Personally, it doesn’t bother me to see the words “There’s probably no God,” because it suggests the possibility that there is one! What’s more disturbing is the following injunction to “stop worrying and enjoy yourself” that suggests there is no accountability beyond this life. That’s all we need to continue the same old same old that caused the current financial crisis in the first place!