Be the voice
A Happy New Year to everyone and I hope you had a great Christmas. Big question is have you eaten all the chocolate? We are just about done, although there is a box of strange tasting marzipan chocolates lurking about.
Talking of chocolate the first week of the New Year is usually when I begin to think about the healthy eating regime. My wife has seen a number of these attempts over the years and she knows they always end the same way. Two weeks of enthusiasm followed by gradual surrender. My thickening waistline testifies to the failure of these well intentioned resolutions So does the question from my wife, “will the paunch be joining us on holiday or staying at home”?
This year my thoughts have taken a different turn. Over the last month I have become increasingly aware of how easy it is for me to be critical of others. Whether it is people I know or see on television or read about in the press I can be very quickly dismissive of those that I think are in the wrong. I am told that social media sites quickly ascertain your prejudices and send you feeds that will feed them even more. Very often these feeds are, like the person receiving them, angry and dismissive. Therefore it becomes so easy for me to sit in my own bubble and carry on criticising. Yet the piercing words of Jesus create a gaping hole in my calm self satisfaction. “Judge not and you will not be judged”. Or as a dear friend put it to me, every so often God has to remind me where I came from, ie what about all the faults that He overlooks in me.
Therefore this year I want to encourage rather than criticise. I want to refrain from angry dismissal and try to listen. If I do have to address things that are wrong then I want to do it wisely and compassionately. I very much doubt I will get it right all the time, but maybe I will do better at this than at dieting.
Maybe we could all try to be the voice this year. The voice of encouragement. A lot of people try their best, in this life, but get it wrong. Maybe when they do we could try lifting them up rather than slapping them down.