Seek First God's Kingdom

David Writes...

Lent begins with Ash Wednesday on the 14th and some of us will spend six weeks going without something that we normally enjoy.  For me this year it’s sweets and biscuits (I eat too many of those!)  The purpose of doing without them is not just to make us feel bad, it’s to hold before God our shortcomings and recognise that temptation is real and that we often succumb – including in ways that are much more significant than sweets and biscuits.

I wonder what are the things in your life that you struggle to do without, or the habits you wish you could avoid but find hard to.  To be effective, an avoidance strategy needs to focus on doing something positive as well as on what to avoid (how often have we seen a football team blow a lead when they only try to put ‘men behind the ball’ to try to avoid conceding without seeking the possibility of a breakaway goal?). 

When Jesus taught people not to worry about what to eat/drink/wear etc, he said seek first God’s kingdom, and that’s why some people use Lent to do something ‘good’ instead of just avoiding ‘bad’.

Like most of us, I am pleased that Lent is not forever!  It comes to an end at Easter, when Christians remember Jesus giving his life for us on Good Friday and the amazing miracle of the empty tomb on Easter Sunday morning.  But it’s time for me to stop, there’ll be time for more about Good Friday and Easter in the next few weeks.

Blue Monday

David writes ...

This month included ‘Blue Monday’ (usually the 3rd Monday in January), which is reputed to be the ‘most depressing day of the year’.  I don’t know whether it’s really the most depressing day but it does raise the important issue of mental health, which is a big problem for many.

About one in four people are formally diagnosed with mental illness at some point in their lives, and many more suffer quietly without ever seeing a doctor.  Perhaps you or a loved one have been affected.  For some people, mental illness prompts big questions about whether God is real/good/powerful/why he allows suffering and so on.  The Bible itself contains lots of questions like these, and it also suggests some of the answers.

One of the amazing things about God is that he knows what’s going on in our minds as well as our bodies.  I remember my first MRI brain scan, looking deep inside my head, and having a strong sense of Psalm 139: “Search me and know me, see if there is any offensive way in me…”.  God knows what’s going on inside us and his love and power are stronger than whatever it might be.

One of the Bible characters afflicted by illness, which may have been mental or physical or both, was St Paul.  Despite his condition and some very tough experiences, he was able to write “I am convinced that nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus”.  (See Romans 8).   I hope that will be your experience too.

No Life is Ordinary

David Writes...

Many of us find our lives busy with ‘ordinary’ things like family, work, hobbies etc.  Sometimes it’s hard to see the bigger picture, but sometimes it’s the smaller things of life that get wrapped up into the big picture.

For my daily Bible reading this month, I’m spending time looking at the short book of Ruth (just four chapters, well worth reading), set over 1000 years before the time of Jesus.  Early in the book, both Ruth and her mother-in-law Naomi are widowed while staying in a foreign land.  As they face various challenges, Ruth decides to stand by and travel with her mother-in-law despite the fact that they come from different countries and different generations.  Just in the small details, there are lots of hints of how to care for people in need.

But by the end of the book, Ruth meets a man (Boaz), gets married and in the process becomes the great grandmother of the future king David.  So the ‘ordinary’ details of her life become part of the big picture of what God is doing.

If your life, sometimes feels ‘ordinary’, I hope you’ll reflect that God can still be at work in you and through you.