I was on holiday for a few days this week? Should you switch off the news when you go on holiday? Is it possible to relax while given multiple reminders every day of the lethal efficiency of drones and missiles? All our devices with screens provide images, clips and comment on the sheer Hell people have to live through in the middle East, in Ukraine, Yemen, and any number of other places we will never visit, but whose nightmares haunt our imaginations, fed by the perpetual news machine.
I was on holiday for a few days this week. One of the favourite countries for Europeans to visit for their holidays, was inundated with floods that have so far killed over 200 people, destroyed towns and communities, and brought unforeseen misery to tens of thousands of people. A week ago these same people were happily living their lives oblivious of any imminent threat to their lives and families. Graphic footage exposes again the fragility of our security, and the uncertainty of every day.
I was on holiday for a few days this week. For the first time in their history the football team I support has played 16 matches without defeat. Aberdeen's biggest game so far was on Wednesday, when I was on holiday, and when full time came the glow of contentment was a holiday in itself! In addition, we were in a favourite place, the food was plentiful and high quality, all was geared to the comfort and convenience of the guests. As usual, and as expected, we have come back refreshed and with some good memories.
But. There was no holiday for people in parts of Spain, or Lebanon, or Israel, or Gaza, or Ukraine, or Russia, or Yemen. I can't help that - and that's the dilemma. We live within human limits, and we can't fix the world. Yet as a Christian I try to obey two imperatives: first to be a good steward of the life I have been given, the call and commission as a follower of Jesus to be and to share and to live visibly and audibly the love of God; second, to carry in my heart the pain and brokenness of the world and lay it before the throne of grace where we are promised, there is grace to help in time of need.
In other words, whatever is going on in the wider world, I have to live faithfully in the time and place where God has placed me. Yet at the same time, by prayer and intercession I am called to transcend the human limitations of time and space, and pray with patient and unrelenting hopefulness for the world I see on the screens of my computer, phone and TV. Even on holiday.
No I can't fix the world. Yes, we all are limited by our humanity, and the unalterable given that is our time and our place in the world and in God's purpose. Joy, gratitude, rest, the capacity to lose ourselves in beauty, fun, good company, satisfying food - these are all blessings, and they come together in a good holiday. So why not ignore the news for three days and give yourself over to well earned rest, and give your heart and brain a holiday as well?
But for good or ill, I refuse to switch off from the realities of the wider world, as experienced by all those other people who share this planet as their home. Does that 'spoil' the holiday? Perhaps. Then again, there is something quite specifically Christian in refusing to give the pain of the world a three day body swerve - it's called loving our neighbour, or faithful compassion in Jesus' name. Perhaps we can never have unalloyed, unspoilt joy, or total rest, even if we shut out the realities of war, flood, famine and cruelty.
For the Christian heart and mind, there is no firewall that protects from the harms let loose in the world. Only the call to bear the sorrows of the world to the throne of grace, to take up the cross daily by remembering why the cross was necessary in the first place, and to bear the sorrows and the cross strengthened in the hope of the risen Lord. We are a resurrection people; we believe that death is defeated and life is let loose; we pray because we are not fatalists who think ourselves impotent and the world beyond redemption. Why? Because God is not impotent, and because of the power of eternal love and sovereign purpose the world is not beyond redemption! We are followers of the crucified and risen Lord Jesus Christ; we are called by the grace of God to bear witness to the Gospel; we are empowered by the Spirit to pray, even when we have no words of our own.
Prayer is the gift, and the burden, of holding the weight of the world's suffering, while kneeling before the throne of grace, and joining our intercessions with those of the interceding Son who sits at the right hand of the Father. From such a gift, and such a burden, there is no holiday; simply the promise of the God of hope: May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 15.13) Or so, at least, it seems to me.
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