Where the Rubber Hits the Road

Ministerial Meandering

Where the rubber hits the road

We have a couple of friends (which is nice), but they are getting on in years.  They have just elected to move into a Care Home, which is a huge undertaking in my view.  It means that from now on there will be no more moves, no more excursions, no more changes in lifestyle, until they move out of there - either in a box or a plastic zip-up bag.

That’s a very brave move and requires a lot of courage.  From a practical point of view it may not be such an upheaval, but emotionally and spiritually, I think it is massive.  It is the final acceptance of the 100% mortality of this journey called ‘life’.

I passed a church the other day - not our church - but one in Chilliwack, where the billboard outside said, ‘Don’t count the days - make the days count.’  I thought that was a good idea, even if it wasn’t an original one; rather like the saying attributed to Mae West - ‘Don’t count the men in your life - count the life in your men!’

Joking aside, I sometimes wonder what I would do if I was told I had 6 months to live.  What would I change in my life - if anything?  What would you?  Or are you happy just to muddle on through and pretend it’s not going to happen?  Rather like Woody Allen, who was reported as saying that he wasn’t afraid of death - he just didn’t want to be around when it happened.

But it is going to happen, and for those of us who begin to feel the passing of time, it is a good idea to get our spiritual affairs in order.

Now I freely admit that I am beyond hopeless when it comes to getting my paperwork in order, so I have to make sure that at least one aspect of my life has some clearly defined goal that I am constantly working on.

I need goals; when I was younger, it was the practical aspects of life that I liked to concentrate on - give me a task to do, and it’ll get done.  Today, it is different.  Today I have to spend more time in prayer and in communion with the God of my understanding - who I happen to see as Jesus, wholly human and wholly divine.  No other religion in the world can make a claim anywhere near to that - or come anywhere close to proving it as well.

If you don’t believe that claim, please come and see me, and I can give you some help - if you are prepared to put in the work - which you should be if your birthday was around the middle of the last century.

But for our youngsters too, there is no time like the present to start asking the questions that will face you when your moment comes - ‘What’s it all about?”

It’s all about your journey now, this week, today.  You don’t get a second shot at this, so your life needs to reflect your true beliefs.  I said last week that you can have a second chance - as Grant did.  He still needs to test his ideas about faith - but that is between him and his Maker.  If he - or anyone else - is in need or lost in this forest of confusion, let me tell you that there is a path out, and you don’t need to give up your critical faculties to find it.  It is real, it is practical, it is true - and as honest as where the rubber meets the road; there’s no need to turn back - that’s not the way.  That was never the way.

Philip+