麻豆约拍

A spritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Bishop David Walker

Something to announce

Good morning

There鈥檚 a saying along the lines that a bad story is halfway round the world, before good news has pulled its boots on. I know from experience, that if I criticise some government announcement on social media, I鈥檒l get multiple likes and re-postings within minutes. If I praise one, there鈥檒l be hardly a reaction. Sometimes the boot is on the other foot. It may be that I鈥檓 announcing a new appointment to a senior job in my diocese, or making public a policy decision the national Church has taken. It always amazes me how social media can find something damning to decry in even the most benign and positive development. And if they can鈥檛 find the negative, they鈥檒l say nothing.

It鈥檚 always struck me that the strongest reaction to the news of the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem came not from the shepherds and wise men, who the bible tells me visited the stable and rejoiced. Indeed, both groups fade immediately into obscurity. Rather it comes from King Herod, who, determined to wipe out a possible future rival, launches a homicidal attack against any infant boy in the vicinity under the age of two.

Hence, I want to take as a personal challenge that, in this year newly begun, I鈥榣l make greater effort to focus on the positives, to praise the good that I see around me, both in people and in deeds. And so, today I pray:

God give me eyes this day, to see the good more clearly than the bad; give me ears to hear the positive more loudly than the negative, and lips more prone to praise than to criticise. That I may be both the bearer and recipient of good news.

Amen.