‘Remembering’
I wonder if you are your neighbour’s leader in knowing when to put which of your different bins out? I think the Crump household would be described more as a follower in that respect. Well, on Sunday afternoon this week whilst resting, I realised it was green bin day the following morning and there are a few bin fulls of tidying the garden up to be done. So with only four more bin collections this season, I motivated myself into action to trim back the sweet peas and the rosemary and lovage which have all run rampant this year [photos below after some of the tidy up] and after an hour satisfactorily ended up with a full bin ready for Monday’s collection. I felt motivated by my motivation of getting some of it done.
We have been thinking in both churches recently about what motivates us as individuals and church and sometimes it’s the simplest of things like it’s green bin day tomorrow and in so doing there is an urgency to the action. Maybe when we hear or read a particular Bible passage we are reminded and indeed then motivated to action or as Rev Tommy MacNeil puts it ‘a call to the Church to awake and arise!’ And yes in this call we don’t want to miss the last bin collection as it were, and so there is an urgency.
It’s seems even more urgent to share the love of Christ in the world in the present state it is in and Remembrance Sunday seems to have a greater poignancy each year as sadly more conflicts are added to the list for us to remember the fallen. Maybe we can’t describe wars as a lack of love but if love was our motivation in all we do I am sure the world would look a different place.
Jesus said:
“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
And indeed it was because of the greatest love the world has ever seen in Jesus, that he was willing to go to the cross for us all.
So as we move into November and remember, may our remembering widen beyond conflicts and even beyond the cross and motivate us into action to make the world a better place by loving more. To follow Jesus is to make a difference of love in the lives of all those we come into contact with. Let’s pray for each other and encourage and motivate each other in this calling.
Your friend and servant
Alan
