Diary Lite
A letter from Revd Canon Terry Joyce
As one who has to live by a diary, the last few weeks have been weird. As for so many others, days of appointments, events and deadlines in my role as a Training Advisor for the Diocese turned into blank pages as certainty fell into the background. Training was off the agenda. All my training involved people coming together in one place, but ‘distancing’ and cancellations have become the new norm. At this point, there is no hint when things might get back to normal.
All this reminds me that the Bible has something to say about this. James took issue with some merchants about some arrogant assumptions they were making: “…. you do not even know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a while and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wishes, we will live and do this or that’. As it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil” (James 4.13-16).
More starkly, Jesus had a message in his Parable of the Rich Fool (Luke 12.16-20) where as a result of a bumper harvest a farmer made plans to tear down his barns and build bigger ones to store his corn and all his other goods. But God said to him: “You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you”.
Both are examples of the error of assuming too much. Lockdown has reminded us about ‘the unpredictable’ and our living has to face that reality. Ultimately, our lives are in God’s hands. We are vulnerable. Life is provisional. We’ve always known this, but now it’s become more real. It’s often said “If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans”. Whatever plans we make, God has the last word.
In some ways, the coronavirus pandemic has reminded us about taking too much for granted. But it has also been a ‘re-boot’ about our priorities. Our diaries are not a priority in themselves, it’s what that goes in them that matters!
Terry Joyce
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