Issue 180
What do you intend to do in the next twelve months? For some of you the question may already be out of date since you planned for these months over a year ago. For others, this year already feels old and the good intentions have, as usual, given way to reality.
But put it another way – what do you think you are being called to do in the next twelve months? Here you may be thinking of missions, visions, plans or, at least, hopes.
Either form of the question generally invites you to think about the good things you want to achieve as we turn the corner of the first decade of the third millennium AD. There is, however, one certainty that will characterise this year. Without great prophetic insight, I can confidently declare that you will make mistakes. Some will be small ones that only you know about, others will carry an emotion of irritation at your own stupidity and there is a possibility that you may even make a big mistake. Some mistakes cause you annoyance, others embarrassment, and it is likely that some of you reading this piece will look back over the next year with some shame at an error committed.
“If you fail to plan, you plan to fail” goes the management mantra but no-one really plans to fail. We don’t really have to; we have a great talent for it and whatever the size, shape or seriousness of it, we are all going to fail at some point this year.
There is a pressure here for those who claim to have faith. You believe you are called to communicate the gospel of God, keeping the rumours of God alive and fanning flames of light in a contradictory world. Yet, you who are called to this high calling will fall over several times this year. The One whom we follow reserved hisharshest words for hypocrites: those who said one thing, yet did another.
In the rough and tumble of work, life and everything, this is exactly what you will do. It will make you feel disqualified, dishonest, irritated or demotivated. It will frustrate and weary you and cause you to apologise to God, others, yourself and no-one in particular. However, there is a possibility that you will miss the point completely. Like so many of our habits, it is built on a spiritual house of cards. The gospel you are called to demonstrate this year is a plan for failure – that is its power. The Easter story contains the heart of the plan and the central meaning is that all failures are covered. It is not a license to fail; it is a rescue service for those of us who are accident prone in this working world where nothing is risk-free.
You are called to declare the whole gospel – that is a person, a message, a way of life and a way of working which challenges all to follow, to be consistent and to walk worthily in whatever we do. You’re even called to declare the parts of the gospel which you find difficult to live up to. If you were only called to communicate the bits you find easy, then your memos will be very short. You are also called to demonstrate the parts that you feel hypocritical about.
So, a suggestion: when you ask or are asked “what do you intend to do in this year?”, you may like to say out loud or to yourself “I intend to get some things right and some things wrong – for the things I get right I will be grateful; for the things I get wrong I am covered.” If you are talking like that you are beginning to get the hang of that Christian word which has been around for so long – ‘grace’.
Have a graceful year this year.
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Work well
Geoff Shattock
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