Encouragements

As another calendar year draws to a close, it is a good time to reflect on the year past, and one that lies ahead.

This weekend I listened to an episode entitled "What is faith?" from the Say Hello to my Little Friend podcast which is presented by doctor Glenn Peoples and which I have gotten into over the last few months. The episode deals with definitions and requirements for faith, and I thought that it was very good. I also thought that some of the things which it touched upon could be related to my previous post on open-minded non-Christians who can find the idea of embracing Christianity a bit daunting.

I suppose that there are a couple of ways in which Christianity can be scary for an open-minded non-Christian. One is to go to a church and to watch people around you start making weird noises with quivering lips, and fall to the floor and bark like a dog. One probably has a good reason to be scared in such a situation. But that is not the kind of scary that I want to talk about in this post. The type of scary Christianity which I want to reflect on, is one which is a bit paradoxical. On the one hand, it seems almost incomprehensible to the faithful Christian. On the other hand, and perhaps without realising it, it is very familiar.

The Law is like a lamp: it brings light so that we can discern from darkness. But we must spend our time working in the light, rather than being fixated on the lamp itself. I mean, how useless would that be! But those who believe they can earn the favour of God through deeds, do.

Today my parents celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary. It was done without pomp1: just going out for family lunch while visiting relatives on the west coast. While I was driving out there yesterday, I thought about the implications and significance of this anniversary. My parents have had a rough time for most of those 40 years and are (in different ways) not where you would expect a couple to be after such a time.

• 1. Unlike another wedding ceremony which took place yesterday, but congratulations to them.

I was listening to one of Mark Driscoll's talks in the "Doctrine" series today. This particular talk was on the significance of Jesus' death on the cross. Right at the end, he did "something we have never done [here before]", and did an altar call. I am not a big fan of the altar call, but Driscoll was not guilt-tripping anyone. I was listening to an audio recording, so after his first appeal, there was just a sudden silence.

Last week the following was retweeted and came across my Twitter stream: A Christian without a church family is an orphan. Sadly, I can attest that this assertion is true.

I am usually a very sentimental person and get very much so around the end of a year. Looking back at the end of the year offers one the opportunity to reminisce about the good times and reflect on the bad times.

In my experience, the end of the year is mostly marked with stress and fatigue. For scholars and pre-graduates, it is exam and assignment time. For post-graduates, it marks the weariness of the degree. For others, the end of the year is a time of an as yet unattained finish of a long term product. Yet others, like teachers, look forward to a time of quietness during the long December holidays which we traditionally enjoy here in South Africa.

I have been feeling the heat myself. The past few weeks has been particularly trying. But I have the strength to persevere because God grants it to me, and I know that there is a lesson to be learned from every situation, appealing or unappealing. Below are some of the things which have been happening:

Change is a characteristic of life. When change is good, we delight in it, such as when a child is born or there is an exciting new opportunity in a new city. But change can, of course, also be bad: the loss of a job, a serious illness in the family, a piece of unsettling news... all of these things, and many more, can throw what we perceive as a spanner in the works. It is then time for adjustments to be made, plans to be altered and strategies to be changed.