Sharing some thoughts

I’m sure we all have times when we’re distracted – some of us get distracted easier than others. It often happens to me when I’m listening to long talks.  It ma y  happen to you when you’re listening to sermons  perhaps !   This week I went on a conference and I was going through some of the things we’d thought about  when I got home  and telling Helen about them and I came to one part of my notes and could make no sense of it at all – I had written something down but clearly had not really taken any notice of what it meant. I blamed the sun  and the possibility of an ice cream on the sea front  for the  distraction ! There is also a great story about the rugby players Gareth Edwards and Ray  Gravell  – having played together for Wales they knew each other’s weaknesses well, and so in a club game between Cardiff and Llanelli Gareth Edwards worked out that there was a way to distract Ray  Gravell  so he would have a poo...

Paul wrote in his letter to the Colossians (1:1-12), ‘May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from God’s glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.’ I wonder whether when Paul wrote these words his mind was on things such as the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). He had certainly seen plenty of suffering himself and even, prior to his conversion, caused a fair bit of that suffering for Christians, but it is the parable of the Good Samaritan that perhaps more than any other passage highlights the command of Jesus not just to love God with all our heart, soul, strength and mind, but also to love our neighbour, whoever that neighbour may be. One afternoon a lawyer was riding in his limousine when he saw two men along the road- side eating grass.   Disturbed, he ordered his driver to stop and he got ou...