Sunday, 10th January 2010

Dear Friends,                                                                                                                                

 

We are still in the first fresh days of the New Year.  Even if you are not a “New Year’s Resolution” type of person —I am sure the desire for newness stirs in you.  The yearning to live differently—to walk more fully in the foot steps of Jesus… 

 

Reminding ourselves of what Jesus and James both advised may help us to walk in the light-filled paths that lead to new Life:  “…let your ‘Yes’ be yes and your ‘No’ be no.”  (Matt. 5:37 and James 5:12).

 

Here they invite us to be clear in the words we speak and the deeds we do.  In other words, to say or do what we mean and to mean what we say or do.  To be unambiguous.  To be authentic, genuine and transparent.  This is no easy task.  It will demand that we “know thyself”.  This knowing and clear and unambiguous way of being will originate from silence—prayerful      silence and reflection.  This is where you and I are called to invest. 

 

Furthermore these words invite us to reflect on when we should say “yes” and when we should say “no”.   Sometimes we say the one instead of the other so not to offend someone or conversely to please them.   At the heart of this may be a shallow trust in our own preciousness rooted in Jesus’ holding love of our lives.  This trust will deepen through prayerful silence and reflection.  This is where you and I are en-courage-d to begin.  Alan