JAMES REFLECTION

Reading through James's letter to his church, he seems to have everything covered doesn't he!

Pray about all things, but make sure it leads to action; obey God; be kind and patient; don't favour the rich; stay calm.

All good stuff! But wait! What else is going on in this church? Where are the women? No mention of them!

Well, they are in their rightful place of course, separated from the men, not allowed to have bibles or speak. ( many of them couldn't read). James obviously thought this was okay! 

And we can't condemn him; this was the general view amongst believers at that time. That particular enlightenment hadn't occurred to them yet.

But later on, in the evolving faith journey, it does of course.

I wonder what, if anything, we are missing at Resound? 

Have we got everything right? We're inclusive aren't we? We help the poor and look out for those who are struggling. We do our best to look after the environment. We reach out to the lonely and busy parents. All obvious choices. We run an excellent Foodbank.

But does it go far enough? 

Could we perhaps go one step further and show people how to grow their own food and cook it from scratch, instead of relying on ready meals, takeaways and junk food?

And what is our attitude towards domestic violence? We care deeply about the victims of course, and do what we can to help them; but what about the perpetrators? Do we spare a thought for them? Deep down they must be utterly miserable and absolutely desperate for help. Yet not much thought goes into that. ( some, I know).

It's strange, isn't it, how we can know what we should be doing, and think we're doing well, but be blissfully unaware of the areas we are missing?

So we shouldn't rest on our laurels, thinking we've got everything right. There's always room for improvement, more enlightenment. Let's be open to it.