Getting on with good

I heard a bit of Catholic Mass this morning on the radio - it was a good bit, a homily - about why it is we try to micromanage our spiritual lives and then fail to get anything positive done. It sounded familiar - that old story of everything we want to do or should be doing grinding to a halt whilst we manically fail to fix the hinges on the garden gate (metaphorically speaking).

My parents lived through the blitz in London - they experienced rationing and I was brought up with a utilitatian, fix it as you go, mentality. Finish one job before you move to the next. They were the original reuse and recycle folk - I had to learn to mend old clothes before I was allowed to learn to make new ones.

In this time of recession we are recovering some of this utilitarian thinking. People have gardens again - not just for flowers but for vegetables too. There is a renewed interest in making and making do and even making last. There is even an insurance company at the moment whose TV ad mentions the idea that we all know it does not matter how big the car we drive is, but it does matter that we get to spend time with the people we love.

Spending time with those we love is always the balance in our busy lives and spending quality time with God is in there too. I think what the priest on the radio was trying to remind us is that we cannot get so caught up in our sin, in not getting things right and in our worries about that that we fail to live to the good.

This might sound like dangerous talk from a priest, especially one who would suggest sacramental confession is a good thing I am not for one moment suggesting that we ignore our sin, and there are certainly some things which require concerted action - addictions and behaviors which harm others., but I am suggesting that we do not use those bad habits which we struggle with as an excuse not to do anything good.

When the Church of England was struggling the the question of women being priests it put another plate on the table - in that plate was something called the "Decade of Evangelism" - it was a bold move. But the idea was simple - all the focus should not be on the fight - some of the energy should be on spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ. Perhaps the goals of the project were not surpassed in the sense of it being a free-standing entity - but the message throughout those ten years - especially when folks felt tired about other issues was simple - you have a job to do - act for the good.

This idea of having more than one ball in the air is not alien to us and it is a necessary part of the Christian journey. We have to both deal with those things which seperate us from God and work towards the kingdom and, in all but the most severe of cases, these have to be simultaneous.