dark

Faith, someone said, means seeing in the dark.

I'm not really sure I agree.

I suspect faith means clinging on to a semblance of hope when it's dark all around and you don't see a thing at all. When little makes sense and all that you can see (even in the dark) suggests that things are bad.

The bright spot today was the service we hold here at lunchtime.

There are still a good lot of folk who come out to this time and who seem to enjoy the simple act of worship which there is. And the lunch afterwards, as well, of course. Maybe that a bit more!

A lot of them are getting on in years, and not what once they were.

I sat at lunch with a lady who's now pretty blind. I guess for her the world is always dark. And she doesn't see much at all.

She used to do loads. Now she only does a guided tour of a National Trust property here in town. Even most of that, I imagine, is done pretty much from memory, so poor is her sight.

Outwardly at least, she doesn't seem to let it get her down. She just gets on with things.

She's doing an Alpha course, for one thing, as part of a group of older folk who are getting to know the Lord.

Life may be fairly dark for her, both in fact and by way of metaphor. And there's not that much she sees. But her outlook is hopeful and always so very positive.

A further rebuke and challenge, I guess, to folk like me.