Ian Rees's Blog, page 2

Being light in the darkness

A recent survey has shown that people in Europe are becoming less and less religious, and young people in particular are moving away from all expressions of faith. An article in The Guardian announces it with the heading “Christianity as default is gone” and summarises the findings as:

70% of young people (ie 16-29 year olds)  in the UK identify with ‘no religion’
59% of young people never attend a religious service
Nearly two-thirds never pray

    This is sad reading, but not...

Deadly Boring

John Humphreys has made the news by saying he thinks the Radio 4 ‘Thought for the Day’ is “deeply, deeply boring.” Apparently contributors have nothing more to say than “be nice to each other” or, as Justin Webb pointed out, “if everyone was nicer to everyone else, it would be fine” and the world would be such a better place. There wasn’t a lot of sympathy for that 3 minute slot among the presenters for well-meaning religious moralism, so why bother with it?

We have to begin by acknowledging t...

The God who knows

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At what point do we begin to realise that we can lie and get away with it because other people don’t know what we have done? It’s at quite early age, really, seen in children as young as 42 months. Various experiments have tested this out, one of which put children in a room with an object behind them. When an adult briefly left the room they were asked not to peek at the object, but in most cases the children did. When the adult returned they were asked if they had pee...

In me you may have peace

  If we are honest we all have certain expectations when it comes to experiencing peace. Perhaps we think of sitting on a sun lounger by the pool, a cool drink in hand. Or maybe it is watching a sunset on a quiet evening. Whatever the image in mind, it is usually something calming that is also distinguished by an absence of trouble or disturbance. The peace by the pool, for instance, would shattered if there were other noisy tourists with out of control children. We usually cannot think o...

Keep going

It can be hard to keep going. In July 1952 Florence Chadwick set off from Santa Catalina Island to swim the 24 miles or so to the Califormia shoreline. She had already done a similar distance in swimming the English Channel, but this proved more difficult. A thick fog descended that obscured visibility to the point that she could hardly see the boats accompanying her, but it was her inability to see the coastline that proved more damaging. She swam for more than 15 hours before giving up, exh...

Speak to my soul

There is a poignant moment in the film “Little Voice”. LV, played by Jane Horrocks, has an amazing singing voice and can mimic other famous singers, but she never does so in public. When she is finally persuaded to perform at a local theatre, she initially cannot start because she is looking for one particular person in the audience. She has always sung for her father, even though he is dead, and needs his presence to give her the courage to go on. It is only when she sees him that she is abl...

Unshakeable

There is something in all of us that causes us to forget how weak we really are. Many people will tell you that they felt invincible when they were younger and only realised later on in life that they were anything but. They start out with the attitude that they can handle anything, but then life takes its toll and forces them to change that assessment. Maybe the psalm writer was experiencing a little of this when he said:

When I felt secure, I said, “I shall never be shaken.”
O Lord, when you...

Open my eyes

There are probably many times that you have read the Bible and it has seemed lifeless. You know the spiritual reason for this – the Bible isn’t lifeless; you are. It’s not the Bible that is the problem; it’s me. The Bible remains God’s Word and the Spirit speaks through it whatever I am feeling. To change the picture, the sun shines each day, whether I can see or not. Someone who is blind may never have seen the sun, but that person’s lack of sight does not mean the sun is not still shining....

Machiavelli is alive and well

According to former Prime Minister Harold MacMillan a week is a long time in politics and the events of this last week have proved him right again. It was on Friday 24 June that Boris Johnson was leading the Leave Campaign’s victory celebrations after the vote in the referendum went their way. On Thursday 30th, however, he was announcing that he would not be standing for election as Conservative Party leader. His one-time ally and campaign manager, Michael Gove, had announced he was standing...

Loving the stranger

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The current debate about whether Britain should leave or stay in the EU has produced some pretty unedifying debate. Rather like the US Republican nominations, we have candidates building their case by belittling others and using point-scoring tactics. Both campaigns, for instance, have warned that the apocalypse is near if we vote for the other side. I confess I have stopped listening. Except at one point, that is. I nearly always listen for what is being said abo...