Check your attitude.

Do you see these two views, one is of the trash spilling out of the bin, the other is of some pretty poppies 2 meters away. Without the poppies there's not a lot of beauty in the picture, not a lot that can inspire us to hope. The bin and it's contents are in contrast with the beauty of the poppy. The poppies weren't always there, and the bin doesn't always look this bad. But if we isolate the two pictures we have an incomplete picture. The full picture is the bin and the poppies.

Does the state of the bin make you feel happy at all? To me, no, not at all. In fact the bin makes me feel unhappy, and to a certain extent unloved. The flowers though, they are a really welcome sight. They make me feel hopeful and loved, like somebody cares. If we spend all of our time looking at the bad things in life without ever seeing the good we will become despondent and hopeless. If we spend all day with our head in the poppies we will miss the opportunity to bring about the change that the flowers bring about in us. Any situation can be made prettier. Everyone has an opportunity to bring about some good. When you see some bad in life, remember how good it can be. Jesus said that it is not what goes into a person that makes them rotten, it's the way they respond that does  - specifically meaning their behaviours. How about today we go about looking for the best in every situation, encouraging the flowers to grow in our friends, neighbours, even opponents! This is the way of seeing good things happen. Check your attitude out. If you want to do just that join me Thursdays from 12:30-1:30pm with some others online in a free zoom meeting.

Sense in isolation

The first story in the bible is the creation account, how God created everything that is in existence - does that mean he created the computer I am now typing on? Not in the beginning of time. But everything that exists has come from this first creation story, (even ICU) .

The pinnacle of this event we are told is the creation of the human. God at first creates a man, and although the man is in relation with God, He knows that the one thing that needs to be created in order for this event to be all good is for the man to have a counterpart, a wife, and for them to be able to reproduce. Right at the beginning of time God knows isolation is not a good idea. But then things go wrong; the first couple reject God and trouble enters into creation. Rejecting the Author of life has it's consequences...

...further down the spiral, into the current day we now have prisoners who are kept in isolation as a form of torture, World Wars, famine, conflict and of disease and in the current, global lockdown, many people are not doing so well. The incidences of domestic abuse have soared, the consequences of that rejection apparent between husbands and wives and children. There are many single people who have nobody living with them, left largely to their own counsel, their own thoughts, and many of them are finding this time very difficult - a time when their loneliness has become ever apparent - their neighbour families either a treasure that they can hear but cannot enjoy, or a mess they are so glad to escape. Some find small consolation in online chats but how much body language is available? And there's this human need for touch.
Who knows what will happen when the strain is too much for the system to bare - the response in the supermarkets are really only an indicator of peoples real awareness of how much we rely on 3rd, 4th and 5th parties in our food/ toilet paper chain! All those variables that are now in our lives - How do you make sense of them? What will happen in the next turn towards the abyss?

What are you immune to?

What we are all sitting in is a human imposed isolation that has it's main goal in reducing the strains on our health services that are trying to extend human life. Now extending and protecting life is in itself a good thing - until it becomes our God, NHS nurses, backed by science on Facebook beg us to stay indoors while they fight for our lives. We wait for an immunity, an antiviral drug, something that may give us 10 or 15 more years. But the real diseases is the one that exists in the heart of man, it needs to not only hear the words of God, but be touched by and feel the comfort of Him who draws near - to reconnect with that creator. There's a permanent separation coming, a time when second, third and fourth chances are up.

For years I have worked in Cafe Forever on the Isle of Dogs (a sort of spiritual ICU) and one of our chief challenges is to get those who are at home, those who are afraid of going outside to come down and visit, to find a safe refuge where they can assimilate into society - and be encouraged by the word of God. Cafe Forever is closed right now - and we are doing our best under the circumstances to remain connected, but it needs to re-open. Right now ALL their fears are being rewarded! The addicted, those with OCD's, hermits, Who knows if they will ever be brave enough to venture out again?

Death is a guarantee, it's been hidden for a long time now, but it sits under the surface, very close. No amount of NHS or whatever your health service is called can prevent it indefinitely, it is only a temporary stay. This self-isolation is merely a way for us to participate, to be employed, in that false hope. Real hope is found in Jesus. He, and those who believe in Him, are given eternal life, and employed in the dispensation of that medicine, the elixir.
But we are not given much of an option - governments worldwide are pretty strong in enforcing this agenda. But how about you - are you doing it because you are afraid of death? Or because you are obedient to the government?

We are sitting pretty at the moment - we have a relatively large London home and the children are getting onto our allotment regularly - we often go for bike rides and our larder is full - hallelujah! But what is in store for the future? Well we can only look into in the scriptures and it is not looking good for those who reject God. The best source to answer all the 'who knows' is the one who writes the future, Jesus welcomes anyone into a relationship that is protected, forgiving, loving and full of joy, but to those who reject it there's a darkness coming.