It's the last week in December and the pleasant, familiar end of year routine is under way. I am staying with friends in the south Midlands. These kind people started out as church members in one of my churches in the Banbury area and eventually became my adopted family.
When my mother died in 1997 they let me use the flat attached to their farmhouse. This then became home from home and I have had many happy stays there, particularly each year once Christmas duties were over in whatever church I was pastoring at the time. The family members have their pleasant Christmas traditions and have willingly included me in these.
So all is agreeably familiar, even down to the annual Christmas cold. More often than not I go down with one germ or another not long before Christmas Day. It makes me sound chesty and bunged up but doesn't quite manage to spoil the festivities.
However this year there is a new twist. I have been identified as having a number of medical problems, particularly bladder and prostate. These have taken me into unfamiliar territory. Though never very robust, I have not been used to beating a path to surgeries, clinics and hospital departments. Usually when there I meet with compassion, helpfulness and efficiency. But this does not change the fact that I am on an unknown and disturbing journey.
The new year will bring more investigations and preparations and, sooner or later, surgery. I am prepared to leave the outcome with God and, under Him, the medical people. They are His instruments, whether they acknowledge Him or not. Some friends wonder that I don't ask more questions. But knowing all the details is not the same as being cured. In any case, physical cure only postpones the far more important issue of what happens to me in eternity. As long as I know Christ and the forgiveness of sins and the power of His resurrection, that is the main question answered and friendly light on future paths.
"Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever" (Psalm 23:4-6 ESV).
Wednesday 28 December 2011
Thursday 8 December 2011
The winter test
Eight days into December and I am getting used to my first winter up north. The wind is very wild and there has been the occasional dusting of something between hail and slush. It's been chilly - but not unusually so for this time of year. All in all, the weather is far less severe than in Scotland and probably not much different from some central and southern parts. If this is a standard northern winter, I'll do fine.
My thoughts go back to the beginning of my ministry in the West Country. A new resident that I came across was sadly caught out by an illusion. She and her husband had been visiting that part of the world on their holidays for twenty years. The summer sun had shone and they had enjoyed the peace and the beautiful scenery. They had resolved to make their home in their favourite spot on retirement. The big event came and, at a time of year when the weather was kind, they purchased their dream bungalow in its dream setting. Regrettably the husband died, a victim of the shock of moving while in poor health. The widow now faced her first winter on her own, hundreds of miles from her nearest relatives. Little had she expected that West Country winters can be very bleak affairs. Social Services had many like that lady on their books. No doubt these hapless people now regretted their choice, but it was too late to unmake it. No doubt the only answer to this problem is to urge people to consider the cost of following their dream.
In Luke 14 and verse 27 Jesus warns His followers in very stark terms not to imagine that being His disciple is easy. There may be pressure - even from within your own family. Those in countries dominated by other religions know that well. But you need to set something against that: the cost of not being Jesus' disciple. What a tragedy to miss our way on this one: to miss picking up our cross and then exchanging it one day for a crown!
Sit down and count the cost. But remember, following Jesus to the end is one venture which cannot result in disappointment.
My thoughts go back to the beginning of my ministry in the West Country. A new resident that I came across was sadly caught out by an illusion. She and her husband had been visiting that part of the world on their holidays for twenty years. The summer sun had shone and they had enjoyed the peace and the beautiful scenery. They had resolved to make their home in their favourite spot on retirement. The big event came and, at a time of year when the weather was kind, they purchased their dream bungalow in its dream setting. Regrettably the husband died, a victim of the shock of moving while in poor health. The widow now faced her first winter on her own, hundreds of miles from her nearest relatives. Little had she expected that West Country winters can be very bleak affairs. Social Services had many like that lady on their books. No doubt these hapless people now regretted their choice, but it was too late to unmake it. No doubt the only answer to this problem is to urge people to consider the cost of following their dream.
In Luke 14 and verse 27 Jesus warns His followers in very stark terms not to imagine that being His disciple is easy. There may be pressure - even from within your own family. Those in countries dominated by other religions know that well. But you need to set something against that: the cost of not being Jesus' disciple. What a tragedy to miss our way on this one: to miss picking up our cross and then exchanging it one day for a crown!
Sit down and count the cost. But remember, following Jesus to the end is one venture which cannot result in disappointment.
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