This is our second Harvest Celebration in Worth Parish – where oh where has the time gone?  The vast majority of our time has been wonderful, joyous and energising; however, there have been some low, dark and exhausting times.  In the joyous times, I can praise and thank God with the best of them, but in the bad times, it is all I can do to say the words of praise mechanically at Morning Prayer.

Faith is a rollercoaster ride with great rises and falls.  God has sometimes helped me drag myself from the falls by the gift of perspective.  I have to deliberate and list the things that are good in my life – that might be as simple as I can breathe, that my body works relatively well, that I have a family, a house, a bed, food and that no matter what I am loved by God.  All our gratitude lists will be different, but if we think hard enough we will all be able to fill them. When they are filled and we look at the problem we face, then slowly we see the light of Christ shining in the darkness – the Hope that we have closed our eyes to in our despair.

The gift of perspective helps us to see our blessings so that we can say thank you to God and from this position of gratitude give to others in need.  I think this letter home from a female student sums up the gift of perspective:

Dear Mum and Dad,

Because of the fire in the dorms caused by the riots, I had lung failure and was taken to hospital. Here I fell in love with a porter and we have moved in together. I have left Uni and I am pregnant and we are moving to Scotland and getting married.

Your loving daughter

P.S. None of that really happened, but I did fail Chemistry – just wanted you to keep it in perspective.        

Steve