I was thinking about Matthew, the tax collector, the other day, and how the Lord selected an unpopular worker to be His disciple. And how well Matthew justified His choice. As usual, the Lord showed His freedom from prejudice in giving his servant the chance that he never dreamed of, one that changed his life, and our lives as we read his gospel. The Sermon on the Mount, that most radical testament to Christian conviction, commands us to love our enemies, which must be one of the most difficult instructions ever issued. We are obliged to banish the ‘eye for an eye’ impulse and confront one of the greatest spiritual challenges of our lives. And although politicians are not necessarily our enemies per se, the instruction includes our attitude towards them.

I must admit that there are certain people who make my toes curl, whose presence on the TV ruins my day. ‘You lying cheat’, I think judgementally, and if I were Shakespeare I would shout ‘avaunt’. But we belong to a rational and charitable faith and clearly cannot continue as we are. Many politicians are the modern equivalents of the unregenerate Matthew, out for their own advancement, but we know from the Writings that the Lord can use these flawed folk for the good of mankind. We can judge their actions on the surface but are not able to separate the wheat from the chaff, which constitute the internal man or woman. So we are obliged to operate on the benefit of the doubt. Continue reading Should We Love Our Politicians? →

Decisions, decisions. Don’t they plague us? And we cannot, in all conscience,
take every decision to the Lord. He has gifted us with the ‘as of self’, has empowered us with rationality, and has given women, in particular, wonderfully sensitive intuition. Our antennae are out, ready for action.

For the main part we can cope with the more basic needs that Abraham Maslow, humanistic psychologist, perceived in our psyche. He reasoned that human beings have a hierarchy of needs, and that as these become more sophisticated and inner directed, they shift from survival tactics to deeper psychological drives. Unless we are particularly unfortunate we can cope with hunger, thirst and safety. Most of us satisfy our ‘belonging’ needs and are able to esteem ourselves on the road to self-actualization. We can achieve our potential if we work hard and are given opportunities in life.
Continue reading Who’s The Boss? →