Philippians 2:14-16 (New Living Translation)
Do
everything without complaining and arguing, so that no one can criticise you.
Live clean, innocent lives as children of God, shining like bright lights in a
world full of crooked and perverse people. Hold firmly to the word of life;
then, on the day of Christ’s return, I will be proud that I did not run the
race in vain and that my work was not useless.
This
is the third Monday in January and according to Radio Scotland and many
journalistic sources it is known as Blue Monday or Grey Monday and regarded by
some as the saddest day of the year. ‘Experts’
reckon it may be due to Christmas celebrations being over for another year or
possibly the time that folks discover the level of debt they have accumulated
due to over-spending on the secular side of Christmas. It may even be due to the miserable weather
that we sometimes get in January and the failure to keep resolutions made at
the turn of the year. There’s much
written about the negative impact of this time of year on our collective mental
health.
It
seems to me that we are being pushed towards feeling poorly, depressed and
fed-up from all sides of the media and I wonder why this is. As you will know, I’m retired and walk my wee
dog every day. Yesterday, I was fortunate
enough to be able to take him down to Largs to give him (and me) a change of
scene. It was as busy as you would’ve
found it on the warmest summer’s day with loads of people enjoying the blue skies,
enjoying the scenery, being near the sea and being near Nardini’s. We had friends that were at Troon yesterday
and they said that it was really busy down there as well. In the last week or so when walking locally,
I’ve had to take my tammy and scarf off because it’s been so mild, the skies
have been blue, we’ve had very little rain and hardly any snow so I would say
we have a lot to appreciate and be thankful for at this traditionally difficult
time of the year.
Perhaps there might be
less mental health issues around if our media pointed out the positive as well
as the negative aspects of our day to day living.
Today’s
reading describes Christians as ‘bright lights’. Some say these bright lights are actually the
stars in the night sky. When we see a
clear night sky, particularly in a place where there isn’t an over-abundance of
street lighting, the display is nothing short of spectacular and the word ‘spectacular’
doesn’t even come close to describing what we see. At times like this I find myself asking the
question: ‘who are we compared to the God who created all this’?
On
a cloudy night, the stars cannot be seen.
We know that they are still there, but we cannot see them. When Paul is writing to the Philippians he is
saying if we go about our lives complaining and arguing, we are just adding to
the clouds and others will not be able to see us as followers of Jesus. Just like the media reports previously
mentioned, they will just notice the negative aspects of our behaviour and not
see what lies beneath. It is up to us as
individuals not to let these clouds gather.
Prayer Heavenly Father, we thank you for blessing
us with a calm and mild start to the year.
Help us appreciate the blessings you give us each day. Help us be sure in our faith and content to
be recognised as your people. Let us
tackle all the tasks you lay before us in a good spirit and without complaint
or argument. Amen
No comments:
Post a Comment