Clergy/Leaders’ Mail-list No. 3-005

‘THERE IS A GOD, JOHN, AND IT’S NOT YOU’

From ‘Sunrise Sunset’ (HarperCollins/Harper San Francisco), Rowland Croucher’s book of daily meditations. Feel free to use or adapt it.

Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you. James 4:10.

Someone (presumably married to a John) put the above motto on a their fridge. These days, when theocentrism (God-centredness) is in danger of being replaced with anthropocentrism (where humans are the centre of everything), let us be reminded that God is very big, and we are very small. How incongruous for humans to think the universe is theirs.

I’m reminded of a remark by an Israeli prime minister Golda Meier to one of her cabinet members: ‘Don’t be so humble; you’re not that great!’

Then there’s Pascal: ‘The world is divided between sinners who believe themselves to be saints, and saints who know themselves to be sinners.’

So may I know my place, Lord, and please keep me there. Amen.

Shalom! Rowland Croucher http://jmm.aaa.net.au