麻豆约拍

A reflection and prayer to start the day with Canon Simon Doogan.

Good morning.
For those hopeful that life might slowly be getting back to normal, comes the exciting news that the Edinburgh Festival and the Fringe will go ahead this August, albeit in outdoor venues and with a raft of contingency measures in place.
For summer holidays more generally this year, many are so desperate for a change of scene that a number I know made bookings at the first opportunity,
sometimes, more out of hope than real expectation.

It鈥檚 come as a surprise to a lot of people how deflating it feels not to be able to make and keep personal plans.
Did we ever really grasp until now, the psychological importance of having things to look forward to?
Putting dates in our diaries stretches our horizons.
If we鈥檙e in a position to, arranging where we鈥檙e going to go, what we鈥檙e going to see and, above all, who we鈥檙e going to be with, lifts our spirits.
But painful as it鈥檚 been, part of me wonders have we been learning a new spiritual lesson.

Because, our click-click attitude of doing what we want, when we want to, is one the Epistle of James treats with something approaching disdain.
You do not even know what tomorrow will bring is James鈥檚 blunt rebukes to the presumption of those who forget that they live by the mercy of God.
Don鈥檛 get me wrong, there are people I can鈥檛 wait to see again and places I can鈥檛 wait to go again.
Yet from a faith perspective all these things are properly seen not as a right but as a blessing.

Lord we acknowledge before you
the disappointment of missing out on so much.
Teach us, we pray,
to trust the plans you have for us,
plans for our welfare and not for our harm,
to give us a future with hope. Amen