Monthly Musings – June’s Warring Whispers

Good morning from my glorious part of the world.

As I sit on my deck looking over the valley to Glen Rock (the mountain across the way), I have to admit, I live in a beautiful part of the world and acknowledge I am immensely blessed.

I am also blessed to have my family home from school on holidays for a few weeks. Not that they go “away” to school, but life sure is different with an extra three bodies around the house for most of the day. I learned long ago not to beat myself up about the loss of “routine” during these fleeting moments in life. Before too long, the boys won’t be “being home” for holidays anymore.

Dark Whispers

Although, I did read this morning that nowadays—thanks to the cost of living, interest rates, price and affordability (as in it’s not) of housing, and was that a whisper or a recession?—teenagers are living at home til they’re in their 40’s. So, I may be looking down the barrel of being “blessed with my boys at home” for many years to come. And, considering the state of the world and the terror of my news feed, that’s okay with me.

I don’t know about you, but I am definitely hearing more and more talk of doom, not just doom scrolling, or doom whispering, but genuine doom talk amongst my peers (yes, I actually get out enough to have peers. Actual peers I know by name : ). And every which way I look it is reiterated, reverberated and reinvigorated. Are we making matters worse by “buying in”, or is there a genuine change for the worse on the rapidly approaching horizon?

Love Letters

This month I started a new sermon and blog series. In one sense it was in response to this ongoing conversation of doom and darkness. I feel this is not just a general concern, but within the church there is specific chatter of unease. What does our future look like? What does it mean for us? What are we to do?

As some of you may be aware, I do a significant amount of research for my books. Since my series relies heavily on the context of the Letters of Jesus in the book of Revelation, I am aware that there are many similarities between now and then. For us in the west, we haven’t suffered nearly as much as the early Church did. But our brothers and sisters around the world… for the past 2000 years, have. I felt that due to the similarities, (and the fact that it’s Scripture) there are valuable lessons for us to take away from this God-breathed gold.

Starting at the Start

The series begins with some cultural and contextual insight to what was going on for the early church. There was a mad (as in total utter-nutter) ruler, there was grave persecution, there was isolation, insults and misunderstandings. There were those who were not impacted at all, and there were those who lost everything. And above all, there was hope. The whole book of Revelation is about hope.

Regardless of what is happening in the world, Jesus is on the throne.
We can’t see past the end of our nose, yet he sees eternity.
We are one small link in the chain of humanity, he is the beginning and the end
We are struggling in the battle, He has won the war.

Simple Truth

We may or may not have mad rulers, there is definitely current and promised persecution, there is and will be isolation, insults and misunderstandings. We may be battling illness, recovering and living with the effects of a pandemic, and financial strain and uncertainty about many things, except this: Jesus is on the throne. He is working to a plan and He has already proven victorious; in the past, present and future.

The bible is also clear as to what we should do in ALL of the above situations, from bland to bad, and that is… live godly and holy lives.

That’s it.

Simple.

Except, at times (a lot of the time), it isn’t.

Hence the study on The Letters. Hopefully the mining for godly gold will bear fruit.

In other news.

My new schedule for the current book has blown out a bit due to aforementioned holidays and illness.
At the end of next week I am running a month of writing workshops in collaboration with the Somerset Regional Council.
Next weekend I also get to attend my first Christian Writers Showcase where I have been invited to share a talk on Characterisation and Podcasting. I have a bit to say about Characterisation and feel I shall be more of stage decoration than anything else for the “Podcasting chat”.
Oh! As a reward for turning another year older, I received a new (new to me) lens! You may notice my photos are the same subject materia, just a lot clearer with more detail. Sadly, I’ve not been able to take it out on the kayak yet, I’m fighting off the flu. But soon. July gallery, beware : )

Enough about me, how has your June applied itself?
db