Thought for the Week with Dr David J Dunthorn – St Peter’s Church, Cirencester
Hurray! I'm driving out and about in my car again.
Occasionally I need help to reach my destination and that's when I turn to my sat nav lady. She provides the directions.
Sometimes I ignore her and go my own way. Yet faced with this ingratitude, does she get annoyed?
Far from it; she doesn't raise her voice or even sigh. Instead, she calmly accepts my waywardness and modifies her instructions.
Her patience is a balm. Is she, I wonder, an example of how I should live?
Hang on, I hear you protest, are you serious?
She's nothing but a talking road map with a one track mind. Look somewhere else for your example.
Suitably chastened, I turn to the Gospel of St Mark.
There I read the story of a young man who asked Jesus what he should do to 'inherit eternal life' - how, in other words, he should live a good life.
Jesus' answer was unequivocal: obey the ten commandments. This, the young man said, he already did.
What more should he do? Jesus, who loved him for his earnestness, then said to him: 'One thing you lack. Sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.'
A counsel of perfection, indeed, asking a lot of someone who was extremely rich.
The young man left in sorrow. And when we think of the journey Jesus was calling him to, perhaps we can sympathise.
So, next time we are about to drive somewhere, why don't we think for a moment of the journey the young man turned down, and then ponder our own journey - through life.
This time our sat nav lady won't be giving us directions, sweet though she is. Who will? (My apologies if you don't use sat nav).
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