Saturday 25 October 2014

Background

Devoted, alert and thankful are not the words or attitudes thatwould come easily to most of us while sitting in a prison, howeverthese are the words that Paul used from his cell in Rome. Iremember years ago as a very young father-to-be reading a book onhaving babies. Instructions to the woman in labour seemed odd to me- 'keep breathing and keep your eyes open'. One seemed ratherobvious the other slightly pointless. I wasn't in labour though!I'm not sure how helpful this advice was - but the 'keep your eyesopen' has stayed with me. It meant, I think, 'don't get lost inyour pain'. I've neither been in prison or in labour - but I doknow what it is like to be self-absorbed in times of unhappiness ordiscomfort.

Hard though it may seem to be, Paul suggests we 'keep our eyesopen'. First to God - to devote yourselves to prayer, reaching outto the otherness of God, but also to the world. Don't get lost inyour self but be alert and, most strangely and hardest, "withthanksgiving". I've not right at all to speak to people who are inpain, or in prison. But in my own way I sense the Paul'sencouragement and challenge to the Colossians, as from his prisoncell he was able to share with them how he coped, and how theymight!

To Ponder

• Thankfulness can be so hard; perhaps it is most helpful when itis hardest to do. What is your experience of thankfulnessespecially when it seems most difficult?

• Perhaps courage isn't the absence of fear but what afraidpeople do with their eyes wide open. How do you experience or liveout a life of courage?