Do you find it hard to forgive?

We know that forgiveness is a wonderful experience both for the one who forgives and the one who is forgiven.  It is easy to talk about it but it is one of the hardest tasks we are ever called upon to undertake. It can be  too painful and sometimes our pride and sense of status intrudes as we remember what was said or done to us in the past.  Forgiveness requires humility and sometimes we need to cry out to the Lord in prayer for His help in forgiving those who have hurt us in some way.

We know that the Japanese invaded the Korean Peninsula before the Second World War and inflicted terrible atrocities on the Korean people.  Awful things were done to the local population in the name of Japanese imperialism.  After the war when the Japanese had surrendered and retreated from the peninsula many Koreans continued to remember the dreadful things that had been inflicted on them personally and on their family and friends and harboured hatred and bitterness in their hearts towards the Japanese nation.

Getting a Deep Clean

All photos courtesy of Unsplash

 In January 2016, in N. Ireland there was an outbreak of a bacterial infection called Pseudomonas Aeruginosa. In a two-week period it caused the death of three infants. This infection causes breathing difficulties and tissue damage. It is reported that the bacteria can take hold in areas such as sinks and in water pipes with stagnant water and can live for several days on various surfaces. A university bacteriologist reportedly said that this is a bug which is very common in nature. The hospital ordered a deep clean of the neo-natal ward involved and succeeded in eradicating the infection.

Loneliness and the January blues!

All photos courtesy of Unsplash.

A while ago, I read the following comment in the ‘The Guardian’ newspaper - ‘The dilemma, I’m 22 years old and going into my fourth year in medical school. I have been using study to escape loneliness, insecurity and anxiety that arose from the stress of the course and my failure to establish friends’.

Another person wrote in ‘The Telegraph’, “‘Life looks good on the surface - so why are we all so lonely?  ‘But you can’t be lonely,’ a friend tells me crossly. ‘You’re out every night.’ The backhanded compliment makes me laugh. But it also makes me sad. On paper, my life sounds glamorous. Denying you feel lonely makes no more sense than denying you feel hunger’” These are the comments of a high profile journalist who looks as if she is living the high life but most certainly doesn’t feel as if she is.

An investigation into loneliness in January 2020 showed that a fifth of the population privately admits they are ‘always or often lonely’. But two-thirds of those people would never confess to having a problem in public. Here is the problem - loneliness is the devastating unseen result of the pressures and emptiness of modern life when people live devoid of real purpose and meaning.

TTNY - ‘This time next year’

All photos of Unsplash

A few years ago in the church I attend, there would be a short, weekly interview with an individual about TTT: This Time Tomorrow. It was a great way of getting to know what a Monday morning would look like in somebody else’s life journey. 

 

Whilst reflecting on those life journeys, I thought about TTNW: This Time Next Week. Then, we could go further into next month, next year, the next 5 years, 10 years and then reality has got to kick in at some point, hasn’t it? So allow me to ask about TTNY: This Time Next Year. 

Some of you may remember a TV show, This Time Next Year, that was presented by Davina McCall. It aired between November 2016 and March 2019 over 3 series.  

For any who didn’t watch it, participants made a pledge to fulfil a personal life goal within a 12 month period. The show continued as if a whole year had passed in the space of a few minutes. It was cleverly done. We saw massive weight loss stories such as a mother and daughter who successfully lost 15 stone between them, new careers being followed and a deaf toddler fitted with a cochlear implant for the first time being able to hear and respond to sound. 

There were before and after interviews with a brief 12 month diary clip shown in between which was very emotional and often had viewers in tears. Davina McCall gave some good advice along the way including…