9^th Sunday after Trinity - 1^st August, 2010

When I was younger, I used to get fed up with my parents saying ‘Don’t do this, and don’t do that.’ I even, yes, even me, used to back chat my Mum, and mimic her voice back to her; ‘Paul don’t……’ Of course now that I am older and wiser, I can see that my parents, because they love me, were trying to steer me on the right path. In this week’s gospel reading Jesus tells a friend, “who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?” Those who are trying to guide us and support us as we journey through our life, are not doing so to judge us, neither are they doing so count our mistakes ‘love keeps no score of wrongs’ (1 Corinthian 13 v 4b). God does not keep account of our wrongs, and loves us because he made us. He knows each and everyone of us inside out, and we do not have to hide any part of ourselves from him.

So what should we store up? Store up and keep a sense of love, a sense of community and an awareness of who we are in the heart of the love of God, and share the abundance of that love to all people. So when we hear people telling us things we don’t like - are we going to be cheeky like the little boy earlier and back chat, or are we going to store up something good, so that the treasure can be rich enough for God and rich enough for us.

With love and Prayers
Paul

Thought for the Week

What makes loneliness and anguish is not that I have no one to share my burden, but this,
I have only my own burden to bear.

Dag Hammarskjold 1905-61, Markings

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