Well, here we are at 23.00 on 2nd January 2006 and, at least for those of us South of the (Scottish) border, the party's over for another eleven and a half months. Another Bank Holiday Monday draws near to its close, and the rest of Europe no doubt asks itself again how Britons get away with so many of them, plus informal time off on an individual basis, at this time of the year. Well, next year with a weekday Christmas and New Year, we'll be as back to normal as we can be :-(
Returning to work tomorrow will come hard. Isn't it perverse that while the evenings rapidly become lighter after the Christmas celebrations end, dark mornings linger on well into January and rising at 6.30 is no pleasure for most of us. But do it we must, and soon all the festive lights, decorations and other accoutrements of the season must be consigned to the dustbin or storage boxes once again. Unless you're an Eastern Orthodox getting ready to "keep the feast", or having a twelfth night party (a shame nobody does these days!), "normal" life must begin again.
But what is normal life? For many, it's a dull, repetitive, often lacking meaning kind of affair,which is so sad because that's not the way its meant to be. The truth of the Christmas message is that we carry with us a light in our darkness: the message of one of the epiphany hymns you might just be singing this coming weekend re-affirms that.
In that heavenly country bright
Need they no created light...
So most gracious God may we
Ever more be led by thee.
One of my final reflections on Christmas 2005/6, as if in a Christmas tree's shiny bauble, is that Christ is the light of the world indeed, whatever the season. For we'll have dark days and struggles always,in any month, but we needn't fumble like a miner who's safety lamp has failed. God has poured his light on several issues in my own life this last fortnight: if you're stumbling around looking for the matches right now, don't live your life like a candle in the wind but let the divine spark be your tinderbox! Who needs a nightlight? Sleep tight.
About this blog and the blogger
- Mark A Savage
- HI, I'm Mark and I'm a Middle-Aged, Middlesaxon male. I'm proud of my origins here in the South East of England, and am a historian by academic training and inclination, as well as a specialist in Christian writing and pastoral work. 'Anyway' is where you'll find my occasional thoughts on a wide variety of topics. Please dip into my large archive. I hope you enjoy reading, and please make use of the comments facility. Radio FarFar is really a dormant blog at present, but I may from time to time add thoughts my other main passions, audio broadcasting. You can also join the debate, keep up to date with my activities and learn more about me in my Facebook profile- see link on this page. I'm very much a friendly, WYSIWYG type, if you've not visited this blog before, do introduce yourself -I'd love to get to know you. Carry on reading, and God Bless
Links
- BBC Website: UK home page of Britain's biggest broadcasting community
- BBC WORLD SERVICE Home Page (including programme schedules and listen live)
- British DX Club
- Connecting with Culture - A weekly reflection on (post-) modern life from the talented team at LICC (London Institute for Contemporary Christianity)
- Find me on FACEBOOK: Mark's Profile Page
- Google (UK): Carry On Searching....
- Radio Far-Far: my radio blog
- Scouting: still going strong in its second century! The Scout Association website
- The Middlesex Chronicle- All the news that's fit to print from Hounslow, Feltham and West Middlesex
Monday 2 January 2006
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2 comments:
i enjoyed reading ur blog tonite-kind of just what i needed to hear, that last part. its easy to do the whole light of the world thing at christmas, but its the everyday-ness of life that can cause it to go dim in us. the past few weeks for me have also been a bit of a revelation, with God surprising me with very simple yet deeply meaningful truths, about who He is and who I am.
so this is to encourage u to keep blogging- interacting makes it all a bit more interesting :)
Thanks a lot Lyn for your encouragement- which is just what I need to hear this morning too! As it happens, I am typing this in the dark with only the light of the monitor in my room, but the fascinating lights of inbound planes of Heathrow in the Eastern sky. A reminder, maybe, that the Morning Star of the East coming down to earth can make even the dullest January day glorious! Anyway, to coin a phrase, the worst day of the month is yet to come, apparently-but more on that in a later posting.
I'm so pleased to hear that you have been having some revelation from the Lord, and may he continue to bless you throughout 2006. Interaction does indeed make blogging not just a bit more interesting, but a lot: at least I know I'm not typing into a visual vacuum- especially when I get pictures of some of my readers too...!
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