February 2010

On New Years Eve in the afternoon I slipped on ice in a car park and broke my wrist. In a moment my plans and expectations for the coming weeks changed. Hopefully all will be well but in a small way it brought home to me the unpredictability and fragility of things. As we progress into this new decade it is interesting to note that we have just come through a decade where the word 'security' has with greater frequency prefaced many of our activities and concerns. Examples include 'Internet security; financial security; travel and global security. In truth that decade held many examples of the insecurity of things not least by being book ended with a dot com bubble burst at the beginning and massive banking crisis at the end. Perhaps more amusingly that unpredictability was illustrated last year by a promised barbeque summer that became a washout. Few of us expected the big freeze we have experienced. Reminders of the fragility and unpredictability of life are all around. Often what seems so solid can so easily change. Soon we will enter the Church's season known as Lent. It is a time for reflection: a time to take stock and clarify priorities so that we can take each day hopefully and live them faith-fully. Jesus had quite a bit to say on this subject and as I wish you a good Lent I leave you with a few of his words from the Sermon on the Mount Matt 6:25-34. 'Your Heavenly Father knows what you need…Seek first his Kingdom and his righteousness…

Do not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will worry about itself.'

+Alistair