Day 45 - Issue 29

06/14/19 • 5 min

Exodus 20:12 NLT

'Honor your father and mother. Then you will live a long, full life in the land the Lord your God is giving you.'

If as a teenager I discovered just how frustrating parents were, as a parent I later discovered just how frustrating children and teenagers can be! Yet, this frustration is no sign of a lack of love. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. It is an expression of disappointment; both in my inability to manage a situation, and the disappointment felt in the other. Of course, there is no frustration where I have no love or relationship.

I am very involved in care for my 95-year-old mum. She lived on her own for eleven years after Dad died. She was just around the corner from us. When living alone became too much, she moved in with us for two years, before choosing the safety of a care home where she now lives. I think age brings with it increased inner angst, so I get regular phone calls alongside my regular visits. I find these frustrating. On reflection I’m disappointed in myself that I get wound up by Mum’s anxieties. I’m equally saddened that at this stage of life she appears to find it difficult just to rest and enjoy each day for what it brings. She deserves her rest and enjoyment.

God reminds us that life is given to us by our parents and even if we have never known them, we can give thanks for the life we have due to them. In a fractured world, parenting can prove damaging at times. Yet, we are robust and can survive with support and find ourselves even amid the scars we carry. It is appropriate simply to give thanks for our parents, rather than criticise them for where we feel they have failed us. As a parent myself, I reflect on how I might have done things to enable my daughter to enter adulthood better. One thing’s for certain, God invites us to do the best we can for our parents on the basis that family is at the core of Christian life and is the model through which God reveals God’s own love.

QUESTION: How might does your church care for the ageing in society?

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, help your Church to strengthen the bonds of families.

Exodus 20:12 NLT

'Honor your father and mother. Then you will live a long, full life in the land the Lord your God is giving you.'

QUESTION: How might does your church care for the ageing in society?

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, help your Church to strengthen the bonds of families.

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Day 44 - Issue 29

Exodus 20:8-10a NLT

'Remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. You have six days each week for your ordinary work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of rest dedicated to the Lord your God. On that day no one in your household may do any work.'

In a secular society it’s hard to differentiate between days. I remember growing up when shops shut lunchtime Saturday and didn’t reopen until Monday. The weekend was a time of peace and quiet. Families gathered for a roast around a table on Sundays. I came to love the quiet, even though on occasion I was bored and longed for some action. Today, retail therapy is a hobby and indeed the whole capitalist enterprise is dependent upon cash passing through tills, either real or virtual. So the very idea of a Sabbath is alien to many.

The word Sabbath means “rest”. Historically the Jews kept Friday night through Saturday as a time reserved for God. They stopped work and rested, taking time to worship God together. This same idea was carried into the Christian Church, eventually settling on a Sunday in recognition of the resurrection.

Initially I treated such days lightly. I didn’t feel I needed a pattern of rest, and kept working. Having worked for myself most of my life, the only boundaries I knew were those I set myself. Yet, I discovered the enjoyment of stepping aside from work and engaging with family. A lot of my challenge was the extent to which my identity, my sense of purpose and destiny was wrapped up in what I did. Slowly, I have come to recognise the blessing and benefit enshrined in these Ten Commandments.

I now take Sunday as a rest day. This includes attending church, for here I engage with my Christian family and with God. I renew my faith commitment through the Eucharist and then once more enjoy a roast with family and friends. This is healing and restorative. The day is dedicated to God, a day of celebration of self-care, love of family and friends as well as renewal of faith and contemplation of the privilege of being known and loved by God.

QUESTION: How well do you rest from work?

PRAYER: Thank you, Lord, for the gift of work and for the gift of rest. Help me to appreciate both gifts.

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Day 46 - Issue 29

Exodus 20:13 NLT

'You must not murder.'

It sounds pretty straightforward not to murder. I am unlikely to execute so violent an act against another. Even in anger, I do not feel constrained to strike another. My violence is verbal and that’s the problem. How often have my words contributed to the destruction of another’s reputation? The saying goes, “No smoke without fire” and when my gossip carries only a smidgeon of truth buried among piles of fanciful conjectures, evidence of my own fracture, I make it difficult for the one I accuse to maintain their reputation.

Murder is not limited to the destruction of another’s mortal life. After all, life is expressed in all manner of ways, and if I make an assault upon reputation, manipulate or bully another, I am in the process of killing the God-ordained image seeded within them. In other words, we are to hold one another in high esteem. To think ill of another is part and parcel of our humanity. God invites us to interrupt such a thought pattern and remind ourselves that we are nothing without God. As God accepts us, he promises to make someone of us.

Learning to see others through the eyes of God is a challenge presented to each one of us. Out of shame we may well point the finger at others. This, we hope, directs another’s gaze away from us while justifying to ourselves that we’re not “that bad”! In accepting our fracture and God’s perspective we are able not just to receive God’s grace but become a source of hope and encouragement to others.

God knows that acceptance of others and mutual encouragement leads to full and complete lives. In a day of radical social, cultural and economic change, only God’s framework for living offers hope for our future together. The danger is that insecurity itself breeds contempt, anger and the need for a scapegoat. Only in Christ are we brought together since we are accepted for who we are and as we are and the cross has torn down all walls.

QUESTION: Are there are any places where hate has taken root in your heart?

PRAYER: God of all things, there can often seem to be so much violence and hate in this world. Lord, bring your peace.