Thought for the Day - Thursday 23 July

Thought for the Day – Thursday 23^rd July

‘“What do you think? A man had two sons; he went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ He answered, ‘I will not’; but later he changed his mind and went. The father went to the second and said the same; and he answered, ‘I go, sir’; but he did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?”’ (Matthew 21: 28-31a)

I was writing materials for this passage for Spill the Beans the other day and it has kind of stuck with me ever since!

With the younger children’s materials I was talking about promises being broken and with the older children the consequences of those broken promises and also the great variety of excuses we make not to keep a promise.

As a consequence of all my pondering on the passage it got me wondering just how many times as an adult we have intended to do something and then failed to do it. In truth I am sure that has probably happened more often than we care to remember! It can be so easy at times to make a promise but then become much harder to actually honour that promise. Of course, the reasons for not fulfilling a promise can be many. Sometimes we can just forget or find ourselves too busy, at other times we find we may have taken on more than we could have bargained for, perhaps initially being swept along by a wave of enthusiasm and then when the cold light of day dawns we realise we have over committed ourselves or the original promise is just not so attractive as we once thought. I am sure that on some occasion it may even just be that we can be guilty of downright laziness!

It may be that with luck our failure to keep our promise or our failure to honour our intentions may not matter that much, there may not be any long-lasting consequences. However, on the other hand, it might in fact matter a huge deal and have consequences far greater than we could ever envisage. Indeed, it may even be that by not fulfilling our promise at that very time we have missed an opportunity that may never come our way again and so God’s will may not be done.

In telling this story, Jesus wants us to realise this!

So, if God is calling us to do something, it is a job which needs doing and if we make a promise to do it then we should not be putting off doing that job or making excuses not to do it or forgetting not to do it or just being too lazy to do it – we need to do it and we need to do it before it is too late.

After all, that saying, ‘The road to hell is paved with good intentions’ must have originated somewhere and it may indeed have some truth within it!

Prayer

Loving Lord,

You came to show us a different way of living, a way of deep humility, of obedience, of working together with one heart and one mind where we balance our needs with the needs of those around us. Lord, give us the courage to follow you faithfully and with integrity where our actions which bear witness to the words we speak so that our lives honour you. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.