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After the Disaster

The only survivor of a shipwreck was washed up on a small, uninhabited island. He prayed feverishly for God to rescue him, and every day he scanned the horizon for help, but none seemed forthcoming. Exhausted, he eventually managed to build a little hut out of driftwood to protect himself from the elements, and to store his few possessions. But then one day, after scavenging for food, he arrived home to find his little hut in flames, the smoke rolling up to the sky … [More to come. Click on title.]

Shock an’ Awe

But … to the main strike point: what about the offensive way John greeted the crowds when they came to see him?! “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance … The axe is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down …”

Bit rough! Did he do this with every speaking engagement? Or just on this particular day that One News was there taking notes? Imagine if I’d started this reflection with, “You brood of vipers”! Even to make a point. For dramatic effect. You’d be shocked. … [For more, click on the title …]

Prepare the way for the Lord

Advent is a good time to remember that the Bible we read is not a peaceful read. It is a text borne of trauma, displacement, and loss. The ancient writers who penned sacred scripture — and the vast majority of characters who populate its pages — were not, by and large, history’s winners. They were the persecuted. The dislocated. The enslaved. The desperate. They lived through periods of famine, war, plague, and natural disaster. They suffered starvation, violence, barrenness, captivity, exile, colonization, and genocide. They were, in countless ways, the wretched of the earth. Brave, lonely voices, crying in the desert.

Make it Stop

Crisis management began for me in my final year of school. At the end of couple of days of studying (one had not the skills in those days) and a fortnight of Bursary exams, I remember escaping to the top field and lying back luxuriously on the grass, gazing luxuriously up into the blue sky. Such delight, such flight, after such suffocating masochism all fortnight in the exam hall …. [More to come. Click on title.]