Entertain Me!

I was watching an interview with Judy Cornwell (of ‘Keeping Up Appearances’ fame) and she was discussing today’s humour, contrasted against humour 20-30 years ago. She mentioned that these days, humour tends to be crude, aggressive and full of expletives, which she says equals to bad script writing.

I was reminded of one time I was running a Sunday School. The kids were all very cute and lovable, however I noticed that their attention spans were a lot shorter than kids were even only when I was young. Activities had to be planned to be short and full of bright colours and lots of movement. 

I remember as a kid, I could spend hours hand stitching clothing for my dolls, or painting pictures, or reading.

And then I thought about this year. I have spent a LOT of time this year in bed. In March I broke my toe which put me in bed for over a month with an elevated foot. And now being pregnant, and my first trimester being quite difficult, I spent a lot of the past 3 months either in bed or at the least, in my home.Thank goodness my leaders are so gracious towards me. I cannot imagine how I would have survived in a workplace where I could not take leave.

During those periods, I observed in myself a constant need for entertainment. I used to be able to just sit and think or pray for lengths of time without needing to move on to something else. But now, I get bored too easily. 

I think that this is sad. And I think it reflects society. In our ‘instant’ demanding world, we seldom take time out of it all to be still. 

Perhaps that is why God says, ‘Be still and know that I am God...’ Psalm 46:10

Maybe He knows that in a world full of noise and distraction, it’s easy to forget about Him. Or at least to mostly forget about Him. 

I don’t want to be like that. Now, how to get over my Facebook addiction?

Real Life

My Grandfather's Funeral, 2010

Yesterday I attended the wake, and today the final service, of a woman from our church who passed away. As I was listening to our Pastor speak, I started to think about death. 

As Halloween has just passed, I have been thinking about how our culture has such a morbid fascination with death. We love to watch movies about paranormal activity and be entertained by witches and vampires. 

I was listening to a sermon online from the Book of Romans the other day, and in a side note, the Pastor mentioned that we should be ‘wise to truth, and naive to evil.’ That’s a bit challenging these days.

So this morning, I was thinking about how this woman has died. And about death in general. And then suddenly my thoughts began to shift focus.

I felt like maybe death wasn’t even the point.

I remembered a verse:

“A thief is only there to steal and kill and destroy. I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of.” John 10:10 (MSG)

When we who have a relationship with Jesus die, we don’t actually die. Not in a truer sense. No, we begin to really live. In a realer-than-real-life-way. We begin to experience the fullest meaning of abundant life that our Father promised us. It sounds backwards, but it still true.

I think that understanding this truth would remove all fear of death. Or even the focus on death. 

And that is a beautiful thing. To not fear death but to long for something more wonderful and glorious than we’ve ever seen or dreamt of.

1 Corinthians 15:50 - 58

I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:

“Death is swallowed up in victory.”

“O death, where is your victory?
    O death, where is your sting?”

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

Godly Men

I was talking to a friend a couple of days ago. She is in a difficult marriage. Both her and her husband have been to couple and individual counselling, all to not much avail.

As she was talking, I realised that I have nothing much to say. I have experienced bad marriages ‘second hand’. Both of my parents have had multiple marriages, none of which were wonderful. But for myself, my husband has put me in a place where I literally cannot complain about marriage, or say to someone in a bad marriage, ‘Oh, I know what you mean.’

Very honestly, I believe that my marriage is wonderful to a greater degree because of my husband, and not because of my own doing.

I am the quick to speak, short of temper one. He is quick to apologise and slow to anger.

The reason why I am posting this, is to say that bad marriage is not inevitable. That good men and good marriages do exist. That women can take heart and find hope.

I believe that marriage is designed to be a blessing and gift from God. It’s a place of security and love, peace and comfort.

I do not want to add to the worldly clamour that beats men over the head and yells how terrible the whole gender is. 

Thank you God, for godly men!