The will to win is highly esteemed in our society. We like winners. So it is that we tolerate a vast and widening gap between the wealthy and the rest of us. In an emergency when we are denied the shivering tension of waiting to see who are the winners in the beautiful game, we fretfully await the day when stadiums will be full and winners will once again clutch the silverware in due style.
Winners deserve their success. They spend long hours training on road or in water, muscles hardening as greater demands are laid upon them. They keep at it as the human machine attempts the impossible. Eventually they enjoy a pay-off. And determination is a positive factor in anyone's book. Climbing Everest or sailing round the world requires determination. So does bringing up a child or recovering, as Walter Scott did, from a financial crash. Members of the armed forces regaining their mobility after severe wounds inspire us all with their grit.
But we have to look more closely into determination. It comes from having a goal, a target. And this gets its reward when we find Jesus having something to say about putting one's hand to the plough. In our industrialised society the tool of choice is more likely to be a computer than a plough. Whatever the technology, the principle is the same. And the Christian Gospel is very much into determination, in fact into discovering what makes a man or woman determined to get something done, whether it is establishing a productive company, honing a skill or achieving a rounded personality.
Paul had found something to be determined about. Writing to the Christian community in Philippi, he declared what his aim was (3.13,14). He had a goal in view and he was exerting all the power he could muster to achieve it. Fortunate is the man or woman who can be so sure of an aim in life. Fortunate? Perhaps such a person deserves our commiseration. Laziness, slackness, desultory effort and half-heartedness are precluded. To see determination of this kind is enough to make any observer feel tired. But this is the Christian life-style. It is what took Bishop Hannington to East Africa and an early death. It is what takes innumerable Christian mothers on the painful but rewarding path of bringing up a child in the faith of Jesus Christ.
Yes, determination is a good thing. And we all need a good dose of it as we set to on making a difference. It scarcely needs saying that we achieve nothing without the grace of God at work in us.
ASK A SEAL
Somebody directed my attention to a speech by Admiral Mcgraven USN. You can find it by keying in his name and ‘Make your bed.’ He talks from experience of the Seal training programme. I shudder.
FULWOOD GROWTH AIMS
Christ Church, Fulwood, Sheffield makes itself abundantly clear. ‘We aim for the church family to grow numerically and spiritually. We have a responsibility to see that every resident in Fulwood hears the Gospel of Jesus Christ and that our friends, neighbours, colleagues and family come to know Jesus Christ. Therefore much of what we do is focused on evangelism. But we also want to grow disciples and seek to help everyone who is part of the church family to become mature in Christ Jesus.’
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