Selah2020: Pause and Reflect

[This is one in a series of devotional reflections prepared for Horley Baptist Church during July 2021]

For those of mature years the question no doubt invokes memories of a certain programme for children broadcast on BBC Radio between 1950 and 1982. The catch-phase became so well-known that it was often copied or parodied in later productions as diverse as the Doctor Who series, various pop songs and even in a PlayStation game. Irrespective of your era or genre, are you sitting comfortably?

What image does comfort invoke? Were you one of those who listened with mother in a way that modern society no longer deems necessary? Perhaps you prefer the idea of cotton sheets on a freshly made bed or settling into a recliner chair beside a log fire on a winter evening. How about the experience of escaping from a car crash and resting on a stretcher in an ambulance, surrounded by caring hands? Comfort is not necessarily luxurious, it can also be simple relief from pain and anxiety.

Should you be sitting comfortably?
We have seen images of devastating flooding in western Europe, in parts of eastern Europe, in India, in Arizona; huge fires in Oregon and California, volcanic eruptions in Italy; rioting, social unrest and civil war in too many places to list. We may think ourselves at a comfortable distance from such events but is complacency justified?

We are not all rich, we do not have the resources to tackle these global problems but we all can have an influence locally. In chapter 16 of his gospel, Luke recorded a parable in which a rich man was reclining in comfort and had no concern for those in need. A poor man begging at his gate suffered a life of misery. It would have been no great sacrifice on the rich man’s part for them both to be comfortable, and the outcome of the story would have been so different.

Will you be sitting comfortably?
In last Sunday’s reflection, David told us about three travellers sitting comfortably on a train. He went on to explain how, for each of them, the comfort of the journey was more important than the destination.

To misquote William Shakespeare, ‘All the world’s a platform and all the men and women merely travellers’. We are travellers in life but we are not simply passengers along for the ride; we have a choice about our eventual destination. We can sit back and see where circumstances take us or we can make the decision to follow the route that God has planned for us.

A few centuries after Shakespeare, songwriters Gerry Goffin and Michael Masser wrote a popular song with the refrain:

Do you know where you’re going to?
Do you like the things that life is showing you
Where are you going to?
Do you know?

Are you comfortable with a mystery tour or do you prefer to have some confirmation of where you are going?

And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus
[Ephesians 2:6 NIVUK]

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