Some things are worth waiting for. As an ardent cricket fan I always look forward to the end of March. The clocks go forward, the grass gets cut and my Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack arrives through the post.
This book, running now to well over 1000 pages, is known by some as the “Cricketers’ Bible.” It records the details of every first class game played in the world during the last year and it is a real gold mine of records as well as cricketing miscellanea. Oh, it has one other fringe benefit: it is one of the few things that can keep me quiet for any length of time.
There are, of course, other things that we all face and which we approach with rather less enthusiasm, anticipation and/or excitement. Concerns over work; medical tests and the threat of ill health; family upheavals. These are the kinds of things we dread, yet we know deep down that few of us will escape them over the course of our lifetime.
The way we see the world is often governed by our expectations or more accurately, limited by the horizons we set ourselves. If we always expect the worse, then we’re never really surprised when it happens. There are many things we cannot change: the most obvious of these to me, as a Minister, is that I can’t change anyone else, their response to the world or their circumstances. Like us all, I can only change myself and then I can only change for the better when I get God involved in the process.
There is no magic wand to the ills of this world yet when we place our trust in God and look with expectancy to what that trust will bring, then there is always a whole new way of seeing things. Then, the eagerly awaited becomes even more welcome and the unexpected, unplanned or fear driven, becomes tolerable and possible even to overcome.
Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. (1 Peter 5 verse 7)
Hoddidods for Beever 