during those painful months more than I can ever recall.
Did prayer change things? I don’t know what to think about that. Yesterday it rained miserably on a church fete, even though people had prayed for sun. The truth is that I don’t believe a million people praying for it to be sunny would have stopped the rain. And I similarly don’t think that a million people praying for that firm not to go bust would have prevented the misery. And yet …
And yet! Halfway through the crisis I made my daily phone call to the solicitor, who said, ‘We are dealing with two financial problems. One is with Barclays Bank and that will be solved, although it will be slow. The other is with the Bank of Madagascar, which will be much more difficult.’
As you can imagine, that week God was bothered by my friends about the banks of Barclays and Madagascar more than at any time in history. Four days later, the solicitor spoke only about Barclays. I asked, ‘And what about the Bank of Madagascar?’ She replied, ‘That doesn’t appear to be a problem after all.’ It is completely typical of my experience of God that, just when I have decided how he operates and what the real value of prayer is, something takes me by surprise and I am forced to think again.
| O Lord my God, help me recognize that every good thing in my life has been your gift, even when I am struggling through times of hardship. Amen. |
In the middle of all that turmoil, which took weeks and weeks to conclude, I read the book of Lamentations. Like its writer, I asked, ‘Why is God putting me through this?’ My conclusion, naive and inadequate though it is, is that just as a test pilot pushes a plane to extremes – not to break it up, but to make its reliability complete – life’s difficulties give me a reason to cling closer to God.
I’m in the flat. It’s fine. Come and visit! This afternoon I screwed coat hooks into the wall, which is not quite as impressive as rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, but given my DIY skills ranks as an equivalent achievement. While you are imagining me bumbling over that, I want you to give some thought to this question: are you a happy person to whom unhappy things inevitably happen from time to time? Or is the basic context of your life unhappiness, in which joyful things periodically relieve the discontent?
This question is fundamental and I will revisit it over the course of this spiritual journey. It is vital because, to a very large degree, you can choose which of those is true. I’ll say that again: you can choose whether you are going to be happy.
It is my prayer for you that you will decide that you are a happy person, because once you have made that choice, the reality of it can follow. And all shall be well. And all shall be well. And all manner of thing shall be well.
| Be happy! Will you be a happy person to whom unhappy things inevitably happen from time to time? Or will the basic context of your life be unhappiness, in which joyful things periodically relieve the discontent? You can choose. |
A happy heart
Be Happy! Day 8
Branch out
| [Jesus said,] ‘I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.’ John 15.5–8 |
The idea of being a community can have a bad reputation in the part of the country where I live, and I have no idea why. I’ve just moved into a new flat, so I’ve been knocking on all the doors in the block to say hallo. One of my new neighbours said, ‘We’ve got a good group of people living here now. They all keep themselves to themselves.’ Time will tell whether they think I am a good neighbour, because I have the wrong kind of temperament for keeping myself to myself!
In contrast, I went on holiday with my friend Paul to south-west Ireland. Probably my best holiday ever! It was Easter and we were staying in a bed and breakfast on the Kerry peninsular. We said to the owner, ‘Can you recommend anywhere for us to eat tonight?’
She said, ‘Sure now, they shouldn’t really be opening because it’s Good Friday, but if you go to the hotel by the beach they’ll cook you something grand.’
Next morning at breakfast I said, ‘Oh, by the way, we went to the restaurant you recommended.’ She said, ‘Sure I know you did. I’ve been on the phone. Which one of you had the steak and which one had the fish?’
| [Jesus said,] ‘As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no-one than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.’ John 15.9–13 |
I would hate to be caught in the middle of a scandal there. But, oh boy, wouldn’t it be great to have that kind of closeness supporting you when you are in need, and rejoicing with you when you’ve got something to celebrate!
This is the kind of craic that Jesus was talking about when he compared himself to a vine and his followers to its branches. He explained it to his disciples so that they would be happy, or as he put it, ‘So that your joy may be complete.’ He envisaged leaving behind him a community of believers closely attached to each other; safely attached to God. A community that keeps each other good, so that scandal isn’t going to scar it within. A community that is generating goodness, so that all around it people notice what’s going on and are attracted.
The branches of a vine. What a terrific image! All connected to each other; all joined to the one root; all producing fruit. Not just ordinary fruit, but good grapes for a gorgeous wine. That’s us he’s talking about – those who are seeking to follow the way of Jesus, gathered into some kind of local Christian community or church. Wherever you gather with a handful of Christian people, it becomes the wine-producing region of your district. You are there so that the people of your neighbourhood can be merry. Wahey!
| When the Stranger says, ‘What is the meaning of this city? Do you huddle close together because you love each other?’ What will you answer? ‘We all dwell together to make money from each other,’ or, ‘This is community.’ T. S. Eliot, poet, 1888–1965 |
Can you be a Christian all by yourself and not be part of a church or community? Well, look at it this way. Can you drink a bottle of wine all to yourself and not be part of a group sharing it? Well, you can if you’re a sad old git, but what’s the point? That’s nothing to do with being merry; that’s being drunk. It’s no good to anyone, least of all you. But with Jesus as the vine and you as the branches, glorious fruit grows.
Jesus’ theory was that three things would allow a cluster of believers to grow in all the ways he envisaged. The first was remaining in Jesus, the second was loving the others in the community, and the third was showing others that it works.
Remaining in Jesus means keeping open the life-giving channels between you and him that are going to make you thrive – praying, listening, praising, learning about God, talking about God. To make a habit of those turns the fact of God into a vivid reality flowing up and down you.
This morning I suddenly remembered an experiment we did at primary school. We stuck a stick of celery in a glass of ink, and when we came back the next day the blue had risen up through the stalk and was coursing through the whole plant. I can’t for the life of me remember what that proved! But it does remind me of the goodness of the living God coursing energetically around a human, and that is what remaining in Jesus can do for you.