Strangely Happy

While on holiday in West Yorkshire, I was treated quite regularly to the sight of wandering sheep, from nearby flocks, including these two, who had wandered on to the front lawn of a neighbour! It seemed to be a not unusual phenomenon. We all like sheep have gone astray; Each of us has gone his own way, And the Lord had laid on him The iniquity of us all! I am the good shepherd...My sheep know my voice. These quotes from the biblical books of Isaiah and John, respectively, tell us of the bad and good tendencies of humans - rather unflatteringly likening us to sheep! We have a tendency to "stray" from God. It is not ever, with any of us, that we merely make one or two errors in life which we quickly regret. In our ever present willingness to be legends in our own minds, we may see ourselves that way. But rather, much as we might want to be genuinely good people (and many of us do), we are all too readily ready to put self before God and others, and then soothe our ...

"Go to the ant you sluggard..." The biblical book of Proverbs goes on to praise the humble ant for its self-motivated industriousness, working without delay, as it does, "without overseer." The members of the church in Ephesus are urged to "redeem the time (or 'make the most of every opportunity') because the days are evil." First, give over your worries to God. Then, secure in his care, we should use our time to do things that keep us near him. As we live in the Spirit, growing in Christ, let us enjoy watching God work all around us. Like the ants, we will build things much bigger than ourselves.

"Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won't you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it?" (Luke 14:28) "The prospect of the righteous is joy, but the hopes of the wicked come to nothing." (Proverbs 10:28) Is Christianity so hard that it is left (mostly) untried, as GK Chesterton (who wrote the Father Brown detective series a century ago) said? It does seem hard, because it is inconvenient to not fit in with others, and to choose restraint over indulgence, and prayer over taking control, etc. That's why even Jesus himself likened the choice to follow him to a property developer who has to budget carefully before building, what with contractors always coming in over what they quote to to you and all! I wasn't a very good student at uni, because my aim wasn't to learn, but to pass, so I studied the minimum necessary to achieve my goal. I have remembered a few things, though. One of those is t...

"Where can I go from your presence, where can I flee from your Spirit?"  "You hem me in , behind and before" "Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain." (Exerpts from Psalm 139, in the Old Testament of the Bible) It is a mistake to view the universe as impersonal. The most brilliant scientists - Sir David Attenborough, Professor Brian Cox, to name but two - cannot describe their subjects, whether a distant constellation of stars, or a community of the tiniest insects, without resorting to words of wonder and gratitude.  What we experience in nature isn't accurately perceived by a description of activities and molecules. All of it is engineering and artistry at the same time. More than that, the things we take for granted every day - breathing, walking, speaking, hearing - depend on so many things "working together for good," including distant stars colluding in death to provide substances for our atmosphere, gravity ...

"You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you." (Prophet Isaiah, The Old Testament of the Bible) In a normal neighbourhood of a built up city, pushing to conform all that are in it, to a uniform existence, a determined plant could nonetheless "do its thing." So can a determined human. But personal strength of will, or unusual wisdom, won't by themselves give you the edge in the battle for a heart that "marches to the beat of a different drummer," serene in its inner tranquility. Only a person who enjoys time with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, can live in the midst of normalcy, and engage with life as it is, from a place of such security, that can only be described as "other worldly," while the person is actually very able to understand, and live well in, this world. Stable and growing, they flower and bear fruit. Rooted deeply in God, they are not shaken.