What's your current project?

Someone once remarked that I always had a ‘project’ on the go.  And it’s true: for as long as I can remember, I have had one passion after another, to research this, study that or record the other.  About the time that I first started driving for a living, I also explored the possibility of teaching history at an adult education centre, and spent some months delving into and preparing a course on the Jacobite movement, and the Scottish risings of 1715 and 1745.  This all came to naught when the course was offered and not a single person expressed interest!  A few years later, I discovered that I could listen to RTÉ on the radio in my van, and this led to several months of great interest in what was going on in Ireland, and I followed in some detail the campaigns that led up to their General Election in May 2007.

I find that, when the intense enthusiasm wanes, a residual interest remains.  So I still listen to RTÉ from time to time, and I probably take more than average notice whenever conversation turns to the events of early eighteenth century Scotland.  I have also found that former interests can be rekindled, after lying dormant for some time.  In my teens I had traced, with all the resources then available in my local library, the growth of the United States as its legislative boundaries were pushed further and further west.  This interest was revived recently as I reacted to a remark by a young friend on facebook, and I recall how, during the 2008 Presidential Election campaign, I found – now aided by the internet – that I came to it with much more understanding than forty years ago.

I suggest that there is a parallel between all this personal history and our general response to faith.  In some Bible studies, for example, we are invited to focus on a particular character in Scripture, and follow his or her life, achievements or teaching.  If our church doesn’t organise group studies, this is something we can do for ourselves, using the concordance, footnotes and cross-references in our Bibles, or a study booklet from a Christian bookshop.  When, perhaps years later, a Scripture reading mentions someone whom we’ve studied in depth like this, we can think, if not say, “Oh yes, I know him!”  If opportunity allows, we can then initiate a detailed conversation on the subject, and encourage others to share what we may have found out some while ago.

And, of course, the prime candidate for such study in depth is our Lord and Saviour, Jesus himself.  There is probably more material on Him than on all the other characters of the Bible put together, and it would be easy to become distracted.  The best way might be to select a particular aspect of His life and teaching, such as His miracles, parables or references to money, etc.  The important thing is that, as a result, we come to know Him better.

It’s a sad facet of daily life today that the Name of Jesus is frequently used as a term of emphasis, with no more reverence than the oaths and obscenities that comprise its alternatives.  I regularly challenge myself – though so far without success – to say on these occasions, “I know Him,” and ask what the Saviour of the world has to do with the topic under discussion, or to remind my fellows what that Name can really mean for them.