Much has happened since the last bulletin came out at the end of May. One football season has ended and another has started. Spain are World Champions and Northern Ireland still cannot score a goal. Our summer has been fairly forgettable but we have not suffered any major disasters like Pakistan or China.
We have a temperate climate with no very warm summers or very cold winters so we have much to be thankful for.
But yet we still get the odd surprise. At Summer Madness on the Sunday a lot of tents were destroyed in the gale force winds. We had some very heavy rain over the summer and yet on the day of the Summer Fayre the weather was lovely. Marlyn and I have spent quite a few hours on the wee golf course at Benone and it is surprising how often the weather has been fine. Maybe we only notice the bad weather, not the good! And life is a bit like that. When things are good we carry on and never consider what might go wrong. Then we get sick or a family member is ill, and we realise how important our health is to us. And if any sort of disaster happens we blame God!
But God really does know what is best for us (he made us after all) and when we submit to him we can face anything. So as we move into autumn and leave the summer behind, we perhaps need to reconsider our relationship with God. Will we serve him and those around us, or will we only look to ourselves? I believe it is time for us as individuals and as the body of Christ to recognise our own faults and weaknesses and allow God’s Spirit to work through us for the good of all.
A lot has changed in our parish over the past few weeks and months but there is still much to do. But together with God’s help we really can transform this Community and see a real change in the lives of our neighbours. And the biggest change may well be in our own lives as we allow God to transform us! So look forward to the future with hope and
confidence. Jesus is alive and with his Spirit in our hearts and the love of Christ surrounding us we can together accomplish things way beyond what we imagine.
God bless
Adam