A man I have great respect for, and whose life has touched untold numbers of people around the world, addressed our congregation this week on the occasion of his eightieth birthday. He reminded us how easy it is to move through life without clearly focussing on how much time we have left. His observation was that it isn’t till most people hit fifty that they begin to think about their legacy.

“The pressure is getting to me!”

That’s a statement all of us, except those in extreme denial, can relate to. And 2020 certainly has turned the heat up even more than usual.

Even Paul admitted being in a similar situation. The trouble that came upon him at one point was so severe he was utterly burdened beyond his own strength. He even felt a sentence of death had been passed on him. Later he talked about being afflicted but not crushed. The latter word refers to being stuck in a mountain pass so narrow you had to squeeze through it. He had squeezed his way in, but didn’t know if he was going to get out. For someone slightly claustrophobic like me, that’s a nightmare scenario.

But it got me thinking. What is it that we add to the mix? What is missing when we’re not there?

There’s a little girl called Selah in the church we attend who just brings life. She scurries around, gives people big smiles and always has the pastor’s three-year old son running after her (perhaps a sign of things to come). She was sick this week and it just wasn’t quite the same.

But it got me thinking. What is it that we add to the mix? What is missing when we’re not there?

Few things cause us more grief in interpreting the Bible than ignoring the context.

It’s true that some statements are pretty clear no matter what the context is. One of those is found in Philippians chapter 4: whatever is true, honourable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think on these things. Paul is not talking about moral ideals. The Greek philosophers believed that the good, the true and the excellent all existed independently of God. The role of their god or gods was to try to implement these in the world. But for the Bible, all these phrases are simply a character description of God himself, and hence of Jesus.

A long time ago, the wisest man in the world at the time told a story of people living in a cave. The light shone from behind them and cast shadows on the wall of the cave. The people mistook the shadows for the reality. Because they were in chains, they were unable to look behind them and see the true light for what it was.