Showing everything tagged as Revd Jonathan Evens

In the English language we have many words and phrases that use the metaphor of a journey for aspects of our lives. When babies are born we say that they have arrived. When we have a big decision in front of us, we say we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.

How do we know the right way to behave in any given situation? Rules or commandments, including the Ten Commandments, often seem to be the answer and every society or organisation, including our schools, needs a set of rules as a baseline for acceptable behaviours.

In ‘Abiding’, Ben Quash uses the example of Damiel leaving the certainty and the knowledge of eternity to live in the flux and flow of life, in order to explore the Biblical sense that ‘to abide we must journey; to have truth and life (to have true life) we must be always underway.’

My grandson Joshua is two today. It is fascinating being part of the growth and development of a young child, particularly as a grandparent when you can remember what happened with your own children and also see the way in which, in this case, my daughter and son-in-law approach their role as parents.

Brother Lawrence said that ‘We ought not to be weary of doing little things for the love of God, who regards not the greatness of the work, but the love with which it is performed.’ This could be a motto for this year’s BBC Radio 4 Christmas Appeal which uses the slogan ‘Small Action Big Difference’.

I was in a helicopter flying over mountain ranges in Kosovo. My father was alongside me. Also alongside were relatives from other bereaved families.