So here we are well into the new year. Two weeks down and fifty to go.
At the beginning of the year we were able to testify that the new year seemed safe enough as we communicated with people on the other side of the date line. Perhaps we were wrong.
The abundance of rain – monsoon rains or otherwise – and the floods we have seen, described by an Australian as being of “biblical” proportions, has brought chaos across three continents this week. Australian and Sri Lankan floods, Brazilian land slips – perhaps the weather watchers are right about global warming after all.
Here in Wellington we have yet to experience the big one – the earthquake that is inevitable. In 1855 in the Wairarapa, not far from here in seismic terms, an 8.2 earthquake caused a shake up on 23rd January, the 15th Wellington Anniversary Day. As Anniversary day comes around again it makes you think.
The advantages of that quake were threefold. More land to use in the city (one can find the old water line marked in a street), a decent road and rail link to the Hutt Valley, and a cricket stadium in an area called the “Basin Reserve” – the area was thus a nice place to park your yacht, if you had one.
If we get another big one, we are told that the whole lot will go down again. Underwater cricket, like underwater hockey our favourite spectator sport, could be the latest Olympic challenge.
We will be at the Basin Reserve tomorrow to watch New Zealand’s Black Caps play Pakistan. Hopefully we won’t need a snorkel and goggles as we watch them drown again. The last game ended dismally on the third day.
In the meantime the 14th of January is a pleasant sunny day with a pleasant southerly breeze. What to do? We could carry on packing and sorting, or we could go out and enjoy the capital of the wobbly islands, said to be second only to New York as a world capital. True enough, it’s quite a small capital. But it has its beauty. And given the right kind of earthquake, could have a new series of islands. Not as big or fancy as Manhattan, Staten or Long islands, but then the peninsula we live on will probably be an island again! It does not compare of course. Our suburb was described by an unimpressed and here unnamed relative as being like “Umbilo during the war”. Only Durban people would get that!
We think of the thousands displaced by floods around the world this week, especially our Australian cousins in Queensland, who are showing their standard grit and determination that make them great at many things including cricket.
Happy New Year sounds a bit thin in this context. Courageous perhaps – filled with love and community spirit that exudes resilience and compassion.
Dominus Vobiscum.
Thursday 13 January 2011
Monday 3 January 2011
So you think this year is going to end...
(Written before the end of 2010)
I've been wondering about this end of the year thing. It's a bit like the date line. It had to go somewhere. People have various new year celebrations. This one, with its number system, is quite convenient I suppose. Number two thousand no hundred and ten is about to be finished. Roll along two thousand no hundred and eleven.
Fifty times I have been through this ritual - initially with parents but more recently as a parent of older children. The idea is that you leave the stuff behind in this year and start again with the new one - a new blank page, a new diary for traditionalists, and a new beginning. New hopes and dreams. Sometimes new homes and jobs. New intentions to be better at some things, and to lose the things that weigh us down, both physically and metaphorically.
The truth is the year won't end. We can't leave behind the things that have happened - even though we may hope that the next year will be much much better. We take with us the memories of lovely people who have died. We carry with us the memories of people who have challenged and exhausted us - of colleagues and friends who have journeyed with us and supported us - and of the tragedies and disasters that have forever shattered families and communities.
I've been to church a few times recently - lots of Christmas services. Twice I've picked up on a prayer used in which the Priest prayed, I think, about being inside or outside of time. I'm sure that's what I heard - twice. I could be forgiven for making it up once. The Christian faith is about eternal life - a life that begins now in relationship with God through Christ, a life in love, and a promise that not even death can separate us from this love of God.
My belief about death is uncomplicated. We move outside of time. The numbering of the years does not matter then. We dwell with an eternal God who I suspect, not being bound by time, sees it all at once. Not surprisingly, we are not to consult fortune tellers and astrology is not required - forget the stars. A simple faith in God who is above all means that we are to trust him fully for the bit of time we have labelled 2011.
May your next bit of time on earth, conveniently divided into days and months, be filled with this love that Jesus showed forth in his life, death and resurrection. Read the resurrection accounts in the New Testament. It's quite lovely how Jesus showed up when the doors were locked. Not a ghost, he confounded them with a rather nice barbecue on a beach. And of course it wasn't easy to describe how he left them at the end. Hidden by a cloud perhaps? He has not hidden his truth from us.
Following him in this bit of life labelled 2011 will make for a better journey. Thankfully we take with us the courage and faith that kept us moving steadfastly forward through this year, and the best promise of all - that He will never leave us or forsake us - that He is with us always!
I've been wondering about this end of the year thing. It's a bit like the date line. It had to go somewhere. People have various new year celebrations. This one, with its number system, is quite convenient I suppose. Number two thousand no hundred and ten is about to be finished. Roll along two thousand no hundred and eleven.
Fifty times I have been through this ritual - initially with parents but more recently as a parent of older children. The idea is that you leave the stuff behind in this year and start again with the new one - a new blank page, a new diary for traditionalists, and a new beginning. New hopes and dreams. Sometimes new homes and jobs. New intentions to be better at some things, and to lose the things that weigh us down, both physically and metaphorically.
The truth is the year won't end. We can't leave behind the things that have happened - even though we may hope that the next year will be much much better. We take with us the memories of lovely people who have died. We carry with us the memories of people who have challenged and exhausted us - of colleagues and friends who have journeyed with us and supported us - and of the tragedies and disasters that have forever shattered families and communities.
I've been to church a few times recently - lots of Christmas services. Twice I've picked up on a prayer used in which the Priest prayed, I think, about being inside or outside of time. I'm sure that's what I heard - twice. I could be forgiven for making it up once. The Christian faith is about eternal life - a life that begins now in relationship with God through Christ, a life in love, and a promise that not even death can separate us from this love of God.
My belief about death is uncomplicated. We move outside of time. The numbering of the years does not matter then. We dwell with an eternal God who I suspect, not being bound by time, sees it all at once. Not surprisingly, we are not to consult fortune tellers and astrology is not required - forget the stars. A simple faith in God who is above all means that we are to trust him fully for the bit of time we have labelled 2011.
May your next bit of time on earth, conveniently divided into days and months, be filled with this love that Jesus showed forth in his life, death and resurrection. Read the resurrection accounts in the New Testament. It's quite lovely how Jesus showed up when the doors were locked. Not a ghost, he confounded them with a rather nice barbecue on a beach. And of course it wasn't easy to describe how he left them at the end. Hidden by a cloud perhaps? He has not hidden his truth from us.
Following him in this bit of life labelled 2011 will make for a better journey. Thankfully we take with us the courage and faith that kept us moving steadfastly forward through this year, and the best promise of all - that He will never leave us or forsake us - that He is with us always!
Sunday 2 January 2011
And a Merry Christmas to you too.
(From the December edition of "Quad" Magazine).
Quite amazing it is that we are talking about Christmas already. Apart from the speed at which “time flies” in our lives, it seems peculiar to be assailed by festive advertisements towards the end of October. How merry we are when Christmas injects life into our ailing economies around the world. But are we really happy?
Our year ones and twos watched a delightful story in the Veggie Tales series about “Madame Blueberry” – yes a blueberry with a French accent, who was horribly duped into overspending by some scheming salespeople from a local departmental store. The plethora of goods and gadgets failed to induce a state of happiness in this dear woman. The boys were quick to remind me of this outcome when I asked them what they could remember about the term’s work in Religious Education. Stuff doesn’t make you happy, as nice as it may be to upgrade things all the time. In the case of Madame Blueberry, she remained so “blue” despite her goodies and goods. At the end of the story, when her tree house fell down from the weight of her purchases, good friends saved the day.
It is no real surprise when we hear from researchers that our forbears did not get depressed because they had plenty of sunshine, exercise, good community life (relationships a priority!), ample sleep and a good diet. Somehow the picture of sleepy children clinging to a computer in the dark, feeding on junk food and talking to people in cyberspace, doesn’t match this hope of a non-depressed existence. The boys at school look at me very suspiciously, of course, when (on those rare Wellington sunny days) I chase them out of the passages into the sunlight muttering about fresh air and the sun’s gift of vitamin D being good for their low moods.
So as Christmas comes along, beware the fact that our moods are mixed by a combination of festivities and memories that are painful, and the added arrival of equally challenging relatives! Like weddings and funerals, these important rituals mean that we get together to reconstitute the networks that once would have been common in extended families. The beauty of permanent extended families is that people benefit from ongoing support and have no choice but to forgive each others’ failings and work together! Our isolation in “western” societies has the potential of breeding separation and a dubious self-sufficiency which detaches us.
What’s to be done then? Read Dickens’ A Christmas Carol? Perhaps. A Scrooge-type conversion would make the world nicer – but it’s more than individual change that is needed. Corporations and the wealthy ones who invest in them, and in many countries governments and leaders, are probably all in need of a major transformation or change of heart. We need more than just a festive season as well.
The year will run its course. There will be many celebrations of success and progress in the lives of our students and their families. Well done to so many who have given it their best shot and more! For those who are moving on to new adventures and places, we wish you well. For all of us – there is the hope and prayer that our happiness will be deeper and wider, richer and stronger than the temporary joys of a festive season’s merriment.
The quest for meaning in life - to quote psychotherapist Viktor Frankl - the “will to meaning,” still rates high in our human pursuit for happiness and fulfillment. Frankl, a holocaust survivor, remained resolute in his thinking that happiness can never be a direct goal. How easily we fall into that trap, especially as parents, when we want our children, above all else, to be “happy”. This Viennese psychiatrist suggested that we can live through anything if we have something to live for.
Happiness is the by-product of fulfilled and purposeful lives in which we live for a greater power or cause outside of ourselves. At Christmas we celebrate the birth of Christ, described both as the light of the world and the desire of nations. There is no better model than his loving and sacrificial life, the one fittingly described as “a man for others”. It is this Jesus who calls us to follow Him. May you find fulfillment in your quest for a truly happy and successful future, and may God bless you richly.
Quite amazing it is that we are talking about Christmas already. Apart from the speed at which “time flies” in our lives, it seems peculiar to be assailed by festive advertisements towards the end of October. How merry we are when Christmas injects life into our ailing economies around the world. But are we really happy?
Our year ones and twos watched a delightful story in the Veggie Tales series about “Madame Blueberry” – yes a blueberry with a French accent, who was horribly duped into overspending by some scheming salespeople from a local departmental store. The plethora of goods and gadgets failed to induce a state of happiness in this dear woman. The boys were quick to remind me of this outcome when I asked them what they could remember about the term’s work in Religious Education. Stuff doesn’t make you happy, as nice as it may be to upgrade things all the time. In the case of Madame Blueberry, she remained so “blue” despite her goodies and goods. At the end of the story, when her tree house fell down from the weight of her purchases, good friends saved the day.
It is no real surprise when we hear from researchers that our forbears did not get depressed because they had plenty of sunshine, exercise, good community life (relationships a priority!), ample sleep and a good diet. Somehow the picture of sleepy children clinging to a computer in the dark, feeding on junk food and talking to people in cyberspace, doesn’t match this hope of a non-depressed existence. The boys at school look at me very suspiciously, of course, when (on those rare Wellington sunny days) I chase them out of the passages into the sunlight muttering about fresh air and the sun’s gift of vitamin D being good for their low moods.
So as Christmas comes along, beware the fact that our moods are mixed by a combination of festivities and memories that are painful, and the added arrival of equally challenging relatives! Like weddings and funerals, these important rituals mean that we get together to reconstitute the networks that once would have been common in extended families. The beauty of permanent extended families is that people benefit from ongoing support and have no choice but to forgive each others’ failings and work together! Our isolation in “western” societies has the potential of breeding separation and a dubious self-sufficiency which detaches us.
What’s to be done then? Read Dickens’ A Christmas Carol? Perhaps. A Scrooge-type conversion would make the world nicer – but it’s more than individual change that is needed. Corporations and the wealthy ones who invest in them, and in many countries governments and leaders, are probably all in need of a major transformation or change of heart. We need more than just a festive season as well.
The year will run its course. There will be many celebrations of success and progress in the lives of our students and their families. Well done to so many who have given it their best shot and more! For those who are moving on to new adventures and places, we wish you well. For all of us – there is the hope and prayer that our happiness will be deeper and wider, richer and stronger than the temporary joys of a festive season’s merriment.
The quest for meaning in life - to quote psychotherapist Viktor Frankl - the “will to meaning,” still rates high in our human pursuit for happiness and fulfillment. Frankl, a holocaust survivor, remained resolute in his thinking that happiness can never be a direct goal. How easily we fall into that trap, especially as parents, when we want our children, above all else, to be “happy”. This Viennese psychiatrist suggested that we can live through anything if we have something to live for.
Happiness is the by-product of fulfilled and purposeful lives in which we live for a greater power or cause outside of ourselves. At Christmas we celebrate the birth of Christ, described both as the light of the world and the desire of nations. There is no better model than his loving and sacrificial life, the one fittingly described as “a man for others”. It is this Jesus who calls us to follow Him. May you find fulfillment in your quest for a truly happy and successful future, and may God bless you richly.
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