Sydney
31 August 2003
Home
Archive
Subscribe
Links
Contact
A
place ‘where heaven meets earth’
Teach more religion
in school, says new Gov-General
Toys
for Solomons kids
‘Good
Shepherds’ can almost hear the water
Three
generations of caring for forces
Pastoral
care of the armed forces
League
seeks new laws to protect women
Truth,
a fictional conflict and the need for Christian morality
Editorial:
Find room for God
Letters:
Liberal arts
Conversation:
Sr Renée Heraud, missionary - Vila’s diminutive media dynamo
Why
do we have faith in Jesus?
They
‘need our prayers’
‘Walk
arm in arm’ call to Vinnies
In
touch with God on the roof of the world
Editorial: Find room for God
One of the benefits of technological development is that a modern society like ours can and does give people more and more leisure time, more and more time to “do their own thing”.
Why then do more and more of them seem to be finding less and less time for God?
Do they have less room in their hearts for the love of God, at least so far as professed worship is concerned? Or does the excess of leisure time make them lazy or selfish?
Admittedly, technological progress and changing mores have opened more doors for enjoyment of leisure time, especially at weekends, a time when our forefathers would have regarded worship of the Lord as the main event.
How lucky are we that the disciples were not faced with the same diversions? Or perhaps they were, but had a more focused perspective of faith.
Without those disciples, who joyfully carried the good news of salvation to the four corners of the known earth, we might never have been blessed with the life, the teachings, miracles, death and resurrection of Jesus.
Their fire, their faith triumphed over obstacles which would daunt most if not all of us.
They ventured into unknown territory and they achieved by believing and sharing their belief and their faith.
They dared to show the wonder of forgiveness in an unforgiving world. Many died in their attempts to share the love of God or by refusing to deny him.
They were prepared to put a public face on worship without being distracted by the pleasure of leisure.
For many of us, Jesus is often not the centre of our lives. We are enticed or torn this way or that by an offer we deem as being too good to refuse.
But that is what God is all about - an offer too good to refuse. He offers his love unconditionally through his son.
The map of the human heart has its own geography - hills and valleys of love, rivers and streams of hope and belief, oceans of inspiration and charity and, rising above them all, mountains of faith.
It is what sets man and women apart from God’s other creatures, the capacity to have faith, faith in oneself, faith in one’s beliefs, faith in one’s fellow man and an unquestioning faith in God.
Don’t waste it on ephemeral pleasure.