living the life of tomorrow

This week's going to be one day shorter for me.

I've a whole day conference away in Perth tomorrow which may be a 'day away' - but it's also one day less. Which means that the rest of the week gets rather 'concertina-ed' and a few things have to 'give'.

So today I've been trying to get ahead and sort of get where I'd want to be by the end of tomorrow by the end of today. If you see what I mean!

It's kind of 'living the future' a little, I guess. And not a bad picture of what we're always about. Starting living tomorrow today.

We've had work going on in our buildings here these past few days. Double glazing installed in one of the halls and our 'upper room' being well and truly insulated.

(No - don't worry! This isn't a picture of the work being done at the moment. It's just a pretty graphic picture of the sort of mess that building work involves)

Both cost money, of course. But both of them, too, are aimed at reducing our energy use. We're trying to think responsibly along these lines and figure out just what it means to take care of the earth.

I was at a meeting this evening along those lines. Which only confirmed the conviction I have in my heart that we can't stand idly by. As down-to-earth disciples of the risen Lord, we should be giving a lead.

So the building work that's been going on reflects, I suppose, the work that we've been doing this past long while within our congregation's life, with a view to fitting ourselves once again to be that sort of people. To give that sort of lead.

While the work's going on in the buildings here, the place looks a mess. There's dust everywhere. For a while there's not any glass at all, just wide open spaces where windows once were.

If you didn't know what was going on, you'd think what a run-down, good-for-nothing tip! But it's a work in progress and you can't get the work all done in a 'seamless' sort of way. There's that in-between time when it all seems one big mess.

That's how it sometimes seems as well with the work of re-fitting our communal life.

But I want folk to see where we're headed.

I want folk to see that we're getting ourselves and our life re-configured with a view to our being a people who are able to provide the lead our present-day society now needs.

If it sometimes seems like a mess, it's only because we are building.

Starting living the life of tomorrow today.

Getting well ahead of the game.