Spick and Span

I’ve been thinking about cleaning.  With a whole week in front of me, when I wasn’t working, but had no specific plans, it seemed a good time to apply myself to an autumn clean of my flat.  I confess that it’s something about which I always have great reluctance, partly due to conditioning by my ex-wife, who had high expectations in this direction, and insisted that it was completed as a preliminary to any weekend excursion. It seemed that this was a sort of ‘payment in advance’ for the enjoyment to follow ... which I resented.  Many years later, I realise that - quite apart from the health aspects - I also have a responsibility to maintain the condition of my surroundings ... it’s a form of stewardship. 

Often when I think of housekeeping, the words ‘who sweeps a room as for thy laws’ come to mind, and today I tracked it down.  Written by George Herbert (1593-1633), it’s part of a poem called ‘The Elixir’, which has come down to us as the familiar hymn ‘Teach me, my God and King’.  Herbert was born in Wales, the eighth or ninth of ten children.  His biographer describes his aims as ‘careful self-scrutiny rather than rhetorical pronouncement’, characterised by humility and integrity, not a yearning for celebrity.  His father died before he reached the age of four, so it’s no surprise that he was devoted to his mother, who was an astute manager of the family’s fortunes, and also took a keen interest in her children’s spiritual education.

It’s worth reading all through that hymn if you have the time, for in its simple verses it underlines the importance of perceiving God in everything we see and do in life, however humble and mundane ... which happens to be a neat summary of the aim of these articles!

I can’t leave the topic of cleaning without offering a couple more thoughts.  Sometimes cleaning can be carried out as a by-product of meeting another need, such as looking for something (Luke 15:8).  If a lot of clutter has accumulated, it can obscure an item that has been lost.  This is not just true in material things, but in spiritual matters too of course, so it’s important from time to time to put a determined effort into removing clutter from our devotions, prayers and worship, and refocus on the important core aim of drawing closer to God.

But, like using the more aggressive cleaning compounds without gloves, any cleaning operation carries with it a health and safety warning (Luke 11:25).  If the rubbish has been thrown out, the corners where it lurked are now empty, and there’s only one thing to do with an empty corner, whether it’s in a room or in our lives ...

Let’s be sure we re-fill with the good stuff!

The Right Click

Computers are so much part of our lives these days that it’s hard to imagine life without them.  It’s my belief that everything in life has something to teach us if only we look at it in the right way (through the right eyes?); so what can the computer offer?  Having just changed mine, I’m thinking of that dimension more clearly just now.  Like many laptop users, I think, I find that pad thingy at the front somewhat awkward, and prefer the ‘old-fashioned’ mouse.  It’s comforting, as well as easier, to feel at my fingertips that familiar left- and right-click.

As almost everyone knows, the left click is the one that actually does the work, in effect telling the computer, ‘Yes, I want to take this step.’  The right click, meanwhile, is arguably more powerful, in that it brings up on the screen a menu of useful ‘control’ options appropriate to the particular task you are trying to do.

Wouldn’t life be much smoother if we could be presented in the same way with a selection of options when we have to make an important decision?  My girl friend is crying: should I speak tenderly to her, advise her briskly to ‘pull herself together’, or say nothing, and wait for her to explain what is wrong?  My colleagues aren’t talking to me: was it something I said yesterday, or have I had one too many ‘business lunches’ with the boss?  The TV’s stopped working: do I call in the engineer, buy a new set from the store, or chat to the chap down the road who’s got several in his garage?  Even easier would be a selection of options where the best choice is already highlighted, and we simply have to say ‘yes’.

What we often forget (may not even realise) is that for so many of life’s crisis points, large and small, a source of useful options is available.  Often it is to be found gathering dust on the bookshelf ... the BIBLE.  As we riffle through its pages we can find guidelines that will fit almost every situation in life.  Look, for example, at Peter’s second letter, chapter 2.  Here we find potential answers to many world situations, as well as to common questions about our conduct in social scenarios: what to say, how to behave. 

How many of us question these matters at all, but simply let things happen?  If we were to look at some of the ‘right-click’ options, and reflect on what effect they might have if we tried them, perhaps we could influence the world around us for the better.  Conversely, if we think before we speak - or consider some of these ‘right-click’ options - we may say something quite different, or even decide not to open our mouth at all!

There are also warnings of stiff penalties for those who don’t heed the advice that is offered.  But don’t leave it until a time of need to look for the menu.  You know where the button is ... right click NOW!

Going Back

My cousin and I were talking about holidays.   She’d discovered how expensive was a particular option, and was now considering returning again to the same resort that had welcomed her for the last couple of years.  I was adamant that I would not go back anywhere, citing a place in the south of France where I’d been some years ago with my then girl-friend.  Relationships changed; the following year I returned alone. It was an experience that had done nothing but enhance my loneliness.

I’ve since realised that my general claim, based as it was on a single unwise decision, was unfounded, and I recall a number of occasions when I’ve been back to a place that in the past had been the venue of some sadness or disappointment.  At the time I’d referred to these return journeys as ‘laying a ghost’, and the second visit usually brought me pleasure or satisfaction.  So why should I have instinctively responded as I did?  My conclusion is that it was based on fear; but fear of what?  These other instances that I have since recalled have surely proved that such an emotion is unjustified.

In his inaugural address in March 1933, Franklin D Roosevelt said “The only thing we have to fear is ... fear itself.”  Maybe that thought has a wider relevance than we would allow.  There were many people in the Bible who ‘went back’.  Naomi, for example, returned from Moab to Bethlehem (Ruth 1:22); Jonah went back into Nineveh at God’s command (Jonah 3:3); the people of Israel returned to Jerusalem in their thousands after their exile in Babylon (Ezra ch. 2) and, in a way, Jacob’s sons returned to their brother Joseph by travelling to Egypt (Gen. 43:1-15).  In all of these examples the outcome was for good rather than ill: there was no need for fear, even if at the time at least some of them were fearful (Gen. 45:3).

Towards the end of His life on earth, Jesus talked at length to his disciples, explaining just what was going to happen to Him, and how they would be scattered to their own homes.  This clarity must have been daunting to them, but He understood.  “In this world you will have trouble,” He concluded, “But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

While there is much in the world around us that is uncertain – perhaps most crucially those things that Donald Rumsfeld famously described as ‘unknown unknowns’ – this is one ‘known’ that supersedes all others, and in which we can confidently place all our trust.