The January Blues!

I read the following comment in the ‘The Guardian’ newspaper quite a while ago - ‘The  dilemma, I’m 22 years old and going into my fourth year in medical school. I have been using study to escape loneliness, insecurity and anxiety that arose from the stress of the course and my failure to establish friends’.

Another person wrote in The Telegraph “‘Life looks good on the surface - so why are we all so lonely?  ‘But you can’t be lonely,’ a friend tells me crossly. ‘You’re out  every night.’ The backhanded compliment makes me laugh. But it also makes me sad. On paper my life sounds glamorous. Denying  you  feel  lonely  makes no  more  sense  than  denying you  feel  hunger’” These are the comments of a high profile journalist who looks as if she is living the high life but most certainly doesn’t feel as if she is.

A new  national  commission  investigating loneliness  in  the  UK,  launched  in  January 2020, shows  that  a  fifth  of  the  population privately  admits  they  are  ‘always  or  often lonely’.  But  two-thirds  of  those people would never  confess  to  having  a  problem  in public. Here is the problem - loneliness is the devastating unseen result of the pressures and emptiness of modern life when people live devoid of real purpose and meaning.

Who would you like to spend a day with?

Think about the things we do everyday—go to work, spend time with our family, eat, or maybe watch TV. Whether it’s helping others or getting rest, we find value in all of these things. But do we see value in spending time with our Creator? God created us to spend time with Him. By doing so, we are honouring Him, helping others, and getting spiritual rest and peace.

What if the death of Jesus was actually for you?

All Photos courtesy of Unsplash

8th May 2020 marked the seventy-fifth anniversary of ‘VE Day’, when World War Two ceased in Europe. It was a good day for the civilian people of that continent. All, whether on the winning or the losing side, were relieved that the bombing was over, that their loved ones who had gone off to fight and had survived would be returning home, and that the privations they had endured for years would begin to recede.

Can we trust our leaders?

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We all know that politics can be a messy business and that far more goes on behind the scenes than we realise. Thankfully, in a representative democracy, the elected representatives (i.e., the MPs) are held accountable for their actions and decisions. Whether through investigative journalism, various select committees or a public inquiry, the aim is to hold the government accountable and give the general population confidence to trust them.

Men who want to be God v God who became man

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History is replete with men who strived to be recognized as God. The ultimate power sought by many is to rule over other men and women and be worshipped by them. 

Before Jesus had reached His second birthday, He had already become the target of an assassination plot by King Herod, the ruthless and paranoid ruler of Roman-controlled Judea. Joseph and Mary, prompted by a dream from God, took the baby and fled to Egypt.

Egypt's history was one proud and glorious procession of kings spanning thirty dynasties and nearly 3,000 years. Egyptian kings--the pharaohs--were powerful figures and rich beyond imagination. They wielded wealth like a weapon, built sprawling cities and commanded huge armies.

Facing death - a personal testimony

Photos courtesy of Unsplash

Some months are particularly difficult months in terms of memories. They see anniversaries of deep loss come and go. Somebody once said 'how strange it is, to think that we pass the anniversary of our death every year not knowing which day it will be'. The day our soul will slip invisibly from this tangible, material, everyday world, into the timeless existence of the never-ending hereafter. Do you believe in an ever after? I guess it's much easier not to - but does that belief change what will be?

So much can change in a minute!

 

Photograph - Jon Tyson - Unsplash 

Photograph - Malvestida Magazine - Unsplash

Photograph - Maks Styazhkin - Unsplash 

A lot can change in a minute. We all know the cliches about a week being a long time (in politics) and a lot can happen in a day but the truth is that life can change completely in less than a minute. 

For instance, if you are in the wrong place at the wrong time something could happen that you never envisaged and it changes everything. I’ll never forget when eleven-year-old Rhys Jones from Liverpool was in the wrong place at the wrong time. He lived in a respectable home in a decent area of the city. His mum worked in our local Tesco Store and he was just an ordinary boy enjoying life, loving his football and playing out, as boys do. But on that sad day, he died in the crossfire between two rival gangs. But on the 22nd of August 2007, everything changed in a moment. His life was ended, his parents and family were devastated and his blood was on the hands of the young man who pulled the trigger and those who were involved in providing the weapon. 

Looking forward to flying again!

 

All photos courtesy of Unsplash

One of the benefits of travelling is that I get to fly from time to time. I enjoy flying and am not too bothered if the plane is large or small. It's been a long time since I have flown, so I am looking forward to the opportunity when it comes again.

Once when I was visiting Vancouver, I had the opportunity to fly in a three-seater small plane. It seemed tiny to me. We took off and climbed high above Vancouver, had a quick look over the edge of the Rockies, dipped over downtown Vancouver and returned to the airfield. I enjoyed it, but I was trusting the pilot, the technicians who maintained the plane, air traffic control, and many other people. Events in life are often only safe because people care, prepare and plan things in advance. 

God be with you!

All photos courtesy of Unsplash

The question asked by many people after Christmas is “How did Christmas go?” For the Christian, every day is like Christmas in that God is with us every day. That is the true meaning of “Emmanuel: God with us” and, even better, God is for us; on our side. 

But, remember that God’s Son has another name – Jesus. Every name has a meaning and Jesus means “He will save His people from their sins.” After His resurrection, before returning to His Heavenly Father, Jesus spoke to His disciples with these reassuring words: ”…and, lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age”. This is how Matthew ends his gospel. These words offer great comfort to every Christian. Jesus has promised to be with His disciples “even to the end”. Are you living in the good of Christ’s promise? Do you face tough times with the certainty that God is with you throughout? I truly hope so. 

COVID-19 Learning to live by the rules

I have been considering the effects of COVID-19 on our society and on us as individuals. It has become the one issue that affects and influences everything else we do. Sometimes I would just like to get on with my life, but then often things are not that simple. Life is what it is, and we need to make the necessary adjustments and get on with it. All the regular warnings and directions that bombard us can desensitise us and make us feel numb. My wife continually has to remind me to keep my distance when in the shops or on the street. She is a lot more aware of the two-meter rule than I seem to be. All these reminders are a bit like the safety procedures we are given every time we board a flight. We think we could do the routine for the airline staff, but we’d probably struggle as most of us don’t listen as intently as we should. It feels like we are being told the same things repeatedly. Still, at the end of the day, we need to be consistently warned, as we can become complacent very quickly and need to know what to do in case of an emergency.

GPS

Perhaps there are many who do not know what the initial letters used as the heading of this article mean. They are used as a short way of describing the ‘Global Positioning System’. When this device was developed it caused the manner in which directions to desired destinations were found to be rethought. It was very useful on a vast range of journeys, both terrestrial and stellar. The ability to pinpoint a house while riding a bicycle, either in a very large housing estate or a remote rural dwelling, or to know exactly the location of a satellite hurtling through space, is quite amazing.