mid-to-late-life crises

A lot of my time (not all) through the course of today has been spent with folk pretty much my own age.

They're not exactly having a mid-life crisis, or even a mid-to-late-life crisis; but they are getting conscious of the passing years and the fact that they're really now closer the end than the start of their earthly lives.

Without getting too morbid.

It's a case of facing facts. When you get to be pushing 60 or more, there's a lot of life behind you, and the aches and pains and illnesses which come with advancing years begin to be more of an issue.

The thought of what happens when most of your independence maybe goes, and you become reliant on the help of folk around you - the thought of all that looms just that little bit larger on the horizon of your thinking.

I've been with folk who're struggling with issues like that today. I've been with a couple, way out of town, who, now in their sixties, are struggling with serious cancer.

What does the future hold?

This is the essence of pastoral work. What does the future hold and how are you meant to be viewing that future?

Where do you go from here?

Well, here are five basic gospel principles from which to start.

1. This life is not all there is.

2. God's glory, not our ease, is what we are made for.

3. We follow a crucified Saviour: discipleship is often costly and sore.

4. We are guaranteed his presence with us and his Spirit in us and his working through us.

5. The truest, fullest healing takes place on the day of resurrection.

That doesn't say all there is to be said. But it does provide the appropriate sort of framework for our thinking.

walking with God

The schools are on a well-earned holiday this week. So there've not been the trips to the school today as there generally are on a Thursday.

Which is just as well in many ways, there's been so much else to attend to!

There've been a number of e-mails requiring attention on a range of different subjects. The responses take time, and the e-mails I send in return are hardly short.

There are three worship services, rather than the usual two, this coming Sunday, since it's one of our 'communion' days. That, too, means some extra preparation.

In fact, there's a good deal more by way of preparation required this week, since as well as the three Sunday services, there's a service of thanksgiving I've still to prepare for this Saturday lunch-time; and I'm also leading the young people's meeting on the Sunday night.

Oh - and I'm hoping to look in on the concert being given here on Saturday night by the African Children's Choir! And I'm meant to be leading a prayer, I believe, at some point through the concert.

There are people to see as well, of course. Bereaved families, folk newly back from hospital, folk who've a family member still in hospital, a couple who don't get out that much, and for whom this is the first anniversary of a loved one's death last year, and a home where the girl has just been filmed for this year's Children in Need.

Ministry is always very varied! No two days are the same.

Ministry is also very privileged - I get to share with so many folk at some special times in their lives.

And ministry is generally very pressurised as well. There's a mountain of things to be done, and you can't do them all, so there are choices I'm having to make each day as to how my time is spent.

Not least because I have to factor in to all the different tasks I want to do the time and space to get alone with God: to hear his voice: to catch his take upon it all: to see what he is doing in it all.

I have, that is, to be sure that I'm keeping in step with the Spirit.

That I'm walking (not running!) with my God.

gratitude

The midweek lunch-time service was barely over before I was being advised today of another bereavement.

This was sudden, unexpected, distressing.

A man who loved his garden suffering a heart attack while out in his garden and dying in the place he loved the best. It's the way we'd all choose if we got the choice (which we don't) and if we have to die (which we do). Swift and painless. And doing what we love doing best.

But it's hard for those that are left. Such grief is overwhelming at the best of times. The suddenness, though, of such sorrow only serves to make the more acute the pain that's felt. It's very hard.

The lady so suddenly widowed is a lovely, gracious person. She was bearing it well, for all that her world had been rocked to the core and her mind and her heart were all over the place.

"We were very lucky," she volunteered. She was looking for the positives. Even in the depths of grief her gratitude was clear.

I think that's what the Scriptures mean when they exhort us so constantly always to be thankful.

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. His love endures for ever. [Psalm 136.1]

Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. [Psalm 103.2]

Always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. [Eph.5.20]

But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ. [1 Cor.15.57]

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. [Phil.4.6]

In everything. Thanksgiving.

It's a grace which the Holy Spirit cultivates within our hearts.

down-sizing

Like many who are reaching their age and stage in life, a couple I called on today have moved from their house to a flat.

They don't need the space and they can't any longer keep on top of their running the house and the garden they had. They've not moved far, just a couple of hundred yards at most along the road to a purpose-built block of flats.

'Retirement Flats'. A nice sounding name for a difficult stage in life.

The ethos of the place is really attractive. There's a wide open hall as you enter, bright and fresh and spacious, which gives you the feel of a peacefulness, calm and community. And the flats themselves have got all that a couple like this would need, and are well-finished, self-contained and secure.

It makes sense for a couple like this now to move.

But it does mean a sizeable bit of 'down-sizing'. Stay in a house for a few decades and you'll find there's a mountain of debris in terms of the 'stuff' that you've slowly and subtly acquired.

It simply doesn't fit into a neat and compact, two-bedroom flat. There's a need for some radical 'pruning'.

It's a necessary, painful, but helpful sort of exercise. It has to do with priorities.

You can't take everything. What do you really need? And what can you leave behind or give away?

I sometimes wonder if the life of a church can be like that as well. Bit by bit across the years the life of a church gets filled with all sorts of 'stuff'. 'Stuff' that maybe seems good at the time: but has maybe outlived its usefulness.

We get tired looking after it all. The business of keeping the whole big show on the road becomes in time an irksome sort of burden, for which we have neither the health nor the strength - nor even perhaps the very inclination to attend to it all.

There's a time in the life of a people when the challenge of thorough down-sizing kicks in. Getting back to basics. Simplifying our common life again. Addressing the things which matter.

I sometimes think that the main-line church in our western world has got tired and old, and is thinking in terms of 'Retirement Flats'. There's an awful lot of 'clutter' in the main-line western church. And we're less and less able, it seems to me, to maintain and sustain such a life.

There's a need to down-size.

As the psalmist suggests, there is in our lives a 'going out' and a 'coming in'.

The Lord watches over these stages in our lives.

The bright, expectant, heady days of youth, as off we go to take the world by storm: busy, energetic folk, with high hopes and great ideals and soaring aspirations.

And then - who knows just how much later on - the slower, slowing days which old age brings as step by step we make our way back in: weary, weathered, often rather worn-out by the path our life has taken us, and shedding so much 'stuff' which we have accumulated down the years.

Are there not these stages, too, in the life of a church? And if that's the case, then perhaps it's the challenge of the sort of radical down-sizing this couple have done which the church should be doing as well.

Getting back to basics. Simplifying our life. Shedding all that's excess to the call we have been given by the Lord.

What do we really need to be the church of Christ?

Norman Wilson

A large part of today has been taken up with the funeral of one of our elders, Norman Wilson. I've known Norman for over thirty years and have had the highest regard for the man: he's always been something of a father figure, and I feel his passing keenly.

Here's the substance of the address given at the service of thanksgiving today.

* * *

"In one of his later letters the apostle Paul writes this –

Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners – of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as a rough sketch for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life. [1 Tim.1.15f]

I think Norman would have wished to insist that the deepest truth of all about his life is simply this – he was shown mercy by God.

We often misunderstand the full measure of that mercy of God in the gospel by thinking of it purely in terms of the forgiving love of God: whereas in reality, as Paul himself underlined, the mercy of God is seen most supremely of all in the transforming power of God in Jesus Christ.

God’s mercy to Paul, in other words, was seen at its fullest in his sculpting, with such patience and care, the very likeness of Christ in this man: and producing thereby a rough sketch, for all the world to see – a rough sketch of a transformed humanity, renewed by the Spirit and restored to all of its former pristine glory and more besides: a rough and ready picture, that is, of what true manhood is meant to be, and one day, by the mercy and grace of the Lord, shall be.

And when I say that the deepest truth about Norman’s life is that this man was shown mercy by God, it’s that which I want to affirm: that in this quiet, humble believer, Jesus Christ displayed his extraordinary ability patiently to fashion out of an ordinary man a picture for us all of what true manhood’s meant to be.

Perhaps the most striking depiction of what such manhood looks like is found in the book of Job, as that battered, godly believer rehearses the contours of his living in these terms: listen to this and see if it does not remind you of all that Norman himself has been –

"When I went to the gate of the city

and took my seat in the public square,
the young men saw me and stepped aside

and the old men rose to their feet;
the chief men refrained from speaking

and covered their mouths with their hands;
the voices of the nobles were hushed,

and their tongues stuck to the roof of their mouths.
Whoever heard me spoke well of me,

and those who saw me commended me,
because I rescued the poor who cried for help,

and the fatherless who had none to assist him.
The man who was dying blessed me;

I made the widow's heart sing.
I put on righteousness as my clothing;

justice was my robe and my turban.
I was eyes to the blind

and feet to the lame.
I was a father to the needy;

I took up the case of the stranger.
Men listened to me expectantly,

waiting in silence for my counsel.
After I had spoken, they spoke no more;

my words fell gently on their ears.
They waited for me as for showers

and drank in my words as the spring rain.
When I smiled at them, they scarcely believed it;

the light of my face was precious to them.
I chose the way for them and sat as their chief;

I dwelt as a king among his troops;

I was like one who comforts mourners.

Don’t you think that paints a vivid picture of the man that Norman was? Don’t these words evoke within your mind and heart a very ready memory of the sort of life he lived?

And don’t they stir some sense within your spirit that this is what the Lord is like, that this is what true manhood’s meant to look like, that this is what the great transforming power of God in Jesus Christ will fashion in a man whose heart, as Norman’s unambiguously was, is given to the Lord?

This is the essence of the mercy of God: his transforming love and power in Jesus Christ whereby we are not only given a new start, but made new people; not only forgiven but fashioned anew; not only cleansed, but changed from one degree of glory to another until at last transformed in to the likeness of Christ himself.

That is the essence of the mercy of God. And that is the heart of the story of Norman’s life.

Now that story, at a merely human level, can be told quite simply. His roots were in the highlands, for he was born and brought up in Mallaig, where his parents had moved with their oldest son, Stephen, a year or so prior to Norman’s being born.

His parents were a kind and gracious couple with humble origins and warm and generous hearts; his father a railwayman from the Borders who now drove the locomotives up and down the West Highland Line.

His secondary schooling took him off to Fort William, where he stayed as a boarder through the week. And it was in Fort William that he started his life as a banker. It was the National Bank back then, but that was where his notable, lengthy career with the Royal Bank had its source.

That career in the bank took him, over the years, to Edinburgh, Falkirk and Largs, before returning once more to the capital here in retirement.

It was through the bank as well, of course, that he thus first met the woman who in time would be his wife. It was while he was working in Falkirk that Norman and Moira first met.

They were married back in 1954, and blessed with three fine children; children who, as the years passed by, would bestow on their parents the gift of their six lovely grandchildren.

And then, with his growing infirmity, these last few years have been spent in the care of the staff at The Tor, where he peacefully passed from this life last week.

A son and a brother: a husband and father: a father-in-law and a grandpa: a colleague, a

neighbour, a friend: a treasurer, gardener, guide: a manager, elder and patient.

His story can surely be told in all sorts of ways, through all sorts of eyes, from all sorts of different perspectives.

But the really significant story of Norman’s long life is the story of God’s remarkable grace, whereby there was chiselled out in this man’s life a three-dimensional masterpiece, portraying, for us all to see, the beauty and the dignity, the moral strength and stature of a godly man intent on following Christ.

Let me try and highlight what I mean by that in these brief ways.

He was first a gentle-man. Courteous, kind, considerate. Soft-spoken, warm-hearted, gentle in his manner and approach to one and all.

I have known him for over thirty years, and not once in all those years have I known him to be anything other than that. He has been a support and a strength, an encourager, counsellor, friend.

Never once has there been a harsh word. Never once has there been any hint of impatience or scorn. Never once has there been any attitude other than a wholesome respect and a genuine, welcoming heart.

I think it quite extraordinary that even in the Nursing Home, his world, just like his mind, so much confused – I find it quite extraordinary that even there his gentlemanly courtesy remained, a welcome and a gratitude as real and warm and genuine as ever it had been.

No clearer mark of the grace of God upon a mortal man is maybe found than that: that even in infirmity, the traits of Jesus Christ remain.

He was, moreover, an altogether righteous man. A man of principle; a man of deep, unfailing loyalty; a man of real integrity.

He leads me in paths of righteousness, the psalmist wrote, for his own name’s sake.

The King of Love was indeed his shepherd through all the spheres of life: and it was the path of righteousness which Norman sought to walk.

He was meticulous in the detail of his working life. His staff would not be allowed to leave until the balances were made – down to the smallest detail. He led the way in ensuring that integrity was matched by industry, and understood full well (in ways that seem the absolute antithesis of modern life) that work is not the place for self-advancement but a sphere for selfless service.

I put on righteousness as my clothing;

justice was my robe and my turban.
I was eyes to the blind

and feet to the lame.
I was a father to the needy;

I took up the case of the stranger.

I read that and I think of Norman in his banking life: I read that and I think of Norman as a pastor of the people in his care: I read that and I think of Norman as a neighbour, as a friend.

And as I think on that and how it all was illustrated well in Norman’s life, it makes me all the more resolved myself to put on righteousness as my clothing – to live like that, to be eyes to the blind, and feet to the lame, and father to the needy and to take up the case of the stanger.

A father to the needy.

Yes, he was as well a family man. From long, long years ago, I saw the way he loved and honoured Moira. From long, long years ago, I saw the way his sons admired and loved their Dad, I saw the way his daughter thought the world of him and maybe as a daughter only can adored this godly man.

I know what he’s been as a father-in-law. I know what he’s been as a grandpa. I know what his grand-daughter meant when she wrote in her own child-like way, I love having you as my Grandpa.

And I know that those words said it all for all of the clan.

"the light of my face was precious to them," said Job so long ago.

And that’s how it was, I believe, for Norman and his family as well. The light of his face was precious indeed to them all.

And indeed to us all, too. For he was a truly lovely man. There was a glint in his eyes, a boyish sort of mischief and a playful sort of sparkle in his warm, effusive smile.

There was a kindly sort of humour and an ease about the way he got alongside all the children, and gave each of them such fun.

There was a measured sort of wisdom and a quiet, clear encouragement in all the varied counsel that he gave. He always seemed to understand, he always gave the sense that somehow he was there for you and always on your side. He always made you feel that you could make it, and that things would be all right.

Whoever heard me spoke well of me, and those who saw me commended me, because I rescued the poor who cried for help, and the fatherless who had none to assist him. The man who was dying blessed me; I made the widow's heart sing.

I think he made all our hearts sing.

I think he stirred in our hearts the song of the saints on high, as they revel in that mercy of almighty God in Jesus Christ whereby we are so wonderfully transformed. I think he stirred deep down in our hearts the sense that this is what we long for, that this is what we’re summoned to, that this is what’s made possible through Jesus Christ.

And therefore Norman would wish me to end, as the apostle himself ends the passage with which I began, by ascribing all praise and honour to God himself.

Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever."

pulling together

Scripture Union is another 'para-church' organisation. We're glad to stand shoulder to shoulder with this fine body as well in the work that they do.

We do that in various ways. And this week's provided a useful sketch of the various ways our involvement with them finds expression.

Today, of course, being Thursday, saw me once again along at the school. First for the morning assembly; and then at lunch for the SU group which meets each week in the library.

There are SU groups in lots of schools, and they all rely on volunteers. Some of our folk are involved in this way in various schools throughout the city. Some are teachers themselves. Some are parents of children at school. Some are just glad to give of their time to engage with the children thus.

Every group is different. The one I run had some 20 young pupils along today and they all seem to like it a lot. There's the chat at the start as they all arrive, there's a game for a while and then we get down to the 'bible bit'.

It's short and the time flies by. But it's a fruitful and important sort of ministry which SU has within the schools, up and down the country - and right across the world. And we're glad to be involved like this.

On Monday evening past we hosted here a Prayer Supporters' evening. It's God who makes things grow. We recognise that fact. And so we seek to get behind the work that SU does by making sure we pray. We seek God's fullest blessing on the work which SU does and pray that he would really be at work in children's lives.

Committed and continuing regular prayer is thus a second way in which we share in all that Scripture Union does.

A third important aspect of the way in which we stand alongside all that SU does is through our financial giving. We budget each year to be giving away to various sorts of Christian work some 12% and more (something like £30,000) of our annual income. Scripture Union is one such Christian ministry to which we give.

I've been dealing this week with a kind cash donation which someone gave. The person, who wished to remain quite anonymous, asked that £500 be given to Scripture Union. The person values the work which SU does and is glad to give. That cash donation is a striking illustration of our 'shoulder-to-shoulder' involvement with the work of SU.

We've also been trying to explore this week the possibility of housing a 'Gap' year student who's coming to work for SU.

The person concerned is not your average 'just-left-school' sort of student: she's a 40 year old with a lot to contribute, and SU Scotland was keen to make use of her gifts. All that they needed was somewhere for this 'Gap' year student to stay.

When they sent out an urgent e-mail intimating this pressing need, we thought it worth exploring, since we've got a spacious cottage (presently used by a lovely Nigerian student at Heriot Watt) and we're keen to see it used in the service of the Lord.

Our vision statement identifies six God-given priorities, of which the sixth is stated thus -

servant leadership: we see God growing a church here whose resources (of people, premises and wealth) and resourcefulness inspire, enable and encourage the whole people of God, in this land and beyond. We aim thus to exercise a significant ministry in the wider church, demonstrating a servant attitude, a global perspective and a sacrificial commitment.

Using the cottage like this meanwhile seems entirely in line with what we've been called by the Lord to be and to do.

That's one of the reasons we have a vision statement, of course. It helps direct our thinking and it helps inform our decisions.

The cottage adjoins our halls. It's a graphic sort of picture of the way in which we work with Scripture Union in a shoulder-to-shoulder way.

Yoke-fellows in the service of the Lord.

shoulder to shoulder

No church can do everything. And no church can support everything.

Much as we might wish it otherwise.

It means we have to prioritise, like everyone else. It means we have to be clear in our minds what it is that the Lord has called us distinctively here both to be and to do.

We've been through that process in terms of our overall vision.

And over the years we've also been able to recognise certain close ties that we have with what are sometimes called 'para-church' organisations. That's to say, specialist ministries which are exercised 'alongside' the life and work of the church.

One of these is the West Pilton Christian Centre, a local 'arm' of the Edinburgh City Mission. Down the years we've built up quite a relationship with the WPCC, not least because it's reasonably local. And not least because it does far better some of the things we'd want ourselves to be doing.

They exercise a wonderful ministry amongst folk who are often very deprived and who often don't really know where on earth they should turn.

We send along food each week from here. Members of the congregation (not enough, I have to say, but some certainly) lovingly and generously bring in food to our halls through the week and on a Sunday; and generally on a Tuesday morning these gifts of food are taken along to the Centre for them to use in the ministry they exercise.

We count it a privilege to be involved in this way in that particular ministry - and view it, in some ways, as our ministry too. Not because we do it (as I say, they do it far better), but because we identify with it in this practical, tangible way.

Tom Kisitu is the man who presently heads it up. He's a delightful, up-beat man, with an infectious love for the Lord, a rippling laugh and a smile as long as Princes Street!

He was along at the local school's Harvest Service this morning. The nursery children and the Primary1s-3s all troop along to the church; and the gifts of food which they've previously brought to school are all displayed at the front. After the service we load them all into the van which the Centre has and get them along the road.

It's good for the children to have some sense of where their food gifts go. So I try and give Tom a chance to speak at the service as well.

Their stocks have been low, so the Centre is grateful for this fresh provision of food. The 'recession' is taking its toll. There's more and more need.

Tom and his team engage in a vital ministry. It's 'specialist' in many ways. It's 'mission' in the broadest sense. But at its heart they share with us a burden for the people of our city, that the gospel should be proclaimed and that Jesus should be known.

They're 'para-church'. We work alongside one another. Shoulder to shoulder stuff.

No church, as I said at the start, can do it all. But we're in it together. The body of Christ.

And together we are able to embody in some small way the ministry of Jesus to our needy world today.

disciple-making

Another busy day! Aren't they all!

But in amongst it all I came across this little 3 minute clip in which Alan Hirsch speaks about disciple-making and discipleship.

click on the picture

It's a theme which is central to all that we are as followers of Jesus, of course, and it's right up there at the top of our present 'to-do' list.

SU starts again

We started the Scripture Union group at the school again today.

In the Library. Over lunch.

Which makes it sound a bit like an old game of Cluedo or something!

There must have been some 20 or so of the pupils who came along, which was a great start. A good number of new folk who've not been along before as well. And a good spread of children across the different year groups (P4-7).

The basic pattern's the same as ever.

They arrive in dribs and drabs from 12.30pm onwards to eat their packed lunches. There's chat and chilling with them.

Then the ones who've been having a school lunch slowly drift in as well. More chat and more chilling, 'til by 12.50pm or so we'll have a game of some sort (Pass the parrot today - which reminds me, I left the parrot in school!)

And then the part for the last 15 minutes or so when I'm teaching them from the Scriptures - in a fairly interactive sort of way.

There's a lot of extra work, of course, preparing each week for that short three-quarters of an hour with the children. But I can see how important it is.

I'm building relationships, getting to know the children a little bit better. And that's always vital. Truth flows through relationships. Almost always.

I'm feeding them biblical content. It may not be much in the time that there is. But it's something. A bit more than nothing. The more of the bits of the jigsaw you have, the more you'll be getting the picture. I want to help them see what it's all about, and how it all fits together.

I'm shaping their world-view perspective. How we view the world in which we live dictates the way we live. I'm keen to ensure their perspective on life has the Lord as the heart of their outlook.

Some of the most remarkable tales which the Bible records begin while the person's a child.

I'm praying, therefore, that the Lord would do far more through these brief Thursday lunch-times than we could ask or even imagine! And it'll maybe only be 50 years and more on down the line before the fruit of this work is really seen.

apprenticeship

'Following Jesus' sounds fine.

But I realised this evening in talking it through with some folk that it's actually rather a nebulous sort of a notion.

How do you follow Jesus, in other words? What does it look like in practical terms? What are you meant to do?

I can see now that for the person who is keen to 'follow Jesus' and desires to 'know new life' these are important questions. How do you actually do it?

We were talking about the way to read the Bible on your own. The discipline of daily Bible study.

And we did a 'random' exercise. I wanted to show that wherever we turn in the Bible, there'll always be something we're able to profit from there: and I wanted to show what I meant.

So to make it quite clear this wasn't a thing I'd prepared in advance, I suggested the person just open the Bible at will, and we'd start from there.

It was Job 34.

I have to say there are easier bits of the Bible at which it could've fallen open. But you take what you're given and start from there. We did.

We read the whole chapter. And then I explained what it's impact would be on myself. And how I'd go about this 'preaching to myself'.

This business of learning to live the new life is akin to an old-time apprenticeship. Starting the day with the master craftsman himself; learning each day some new skills as he teaches the truths of his word; working that out through the course of the day as we work alongside the Lord; and then, at the end of the day, being able to go over it all as we talk the whole thing through again with him.

For the person I was speaking with, it was, I think, a breakthrough. He was finally getting a handle, I think, on the new life we're called to enjoy.

Following Jesus was slowly beginning to take shape in a way he could understand.

the knack

Genius. Pure genius.

We have a man in our fellowship for whom that's really the only adequate description. He's amazing, the inventions he comes up with.

We've got a folding machine in our premises here, for instance, which he devised and made. Folding A4 sheets into A5-size leaflets. We use it all the time and it's the envy of other churches. Simple, effective, and hugely efficient in terms of the time that it saves.

When Les came up with the thing I told him he should patent it. He couldn't be bothered. I think he's maybe gone through the patenting process so many times in his life for all the inventions he's made that he simply got bored with it all. Patenting, I mean, not inventing.

He's always inventing. His mind is always at work, working things out, finding solutions, creating machines which will help folk address all their needs.

And yes, he's an engineer. He fixes things. He makes things work. That's what engineers do.

As the cartoon says - he has the knack!

Click on the picture below to see the classic Dilbert cartoon. Except I should say there's none of that 'social ineptitude' about Les! He's a wonderfully friendly man, at home in any company.

Les is up in his nineties now. But he's still got the knack. And he's still producing solutions.

His latest invention is the Geddes Glide Reader, "a high quality miniature camera on a stand which plugs into your television. It makes anything you put under the camera look much bigger on the screen."

It's simple, effective and cheap.

Relatively speaking, that is. Prior to Les' invention the nearest equivalent would have cost you some £3,000 (it still does, of course). Les' Geddes Glide Reader is sold for £65.

My maths isn't great but that sounds to me like it's not far short of 500 times cheaper!

He received a Chairman's Award last month from the Macular Disease Society, presented to him by Dennis Norton. And back in April he and his team of volunteers received an Inspiring Volunteers Award from the Edinburgh City Council. No wonder.

Now, of course, Les may be pure genius, but he's not just genius. He's got a heart of gold as well. A heart that was long ago touched and fired by the grace of God, and breathes the compassion of Christ.

He puts his genius at the service of the Lord. This latest invention of his was prompted by the needs of his wife as she struggled with Macular disease. He wanted to help, to find some way to make the hardships she was struggling with more bearable.

And then to help those countless other people who are facing that depressing deterioration in their sight. The cost is all in the parts. He and his team do all their work in putting the Reader together for nothing.

They care. It's as simple as that.

The guy reminds me of Caleb. A man of faith, a man of courage, a man of practical action.

"So here I am today, eighty five years old! I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out; I'm just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then. Now give me the hill country that the Lord promised me that day." [Josh.14.11f]

The man was always up for fresh challenges.

Well, Les is over 90 now; and he's still going strong. He's a man of devout faith, practical love, and infectious hope.

An example and inspiration to us all. A guy who really has the knack.

diet

An all-day meeting out of town today: a conference type of thing with folk from all over the country.

So an early start and a very full day. Two sessions, one in the morning on Acts 2, the afternoon one on building bridges into the community and building community across those bridges. And in between, lunch and chat with a range of different folk.

The day flies by and there's never the time that you want to be speaking with so many people.

But it's a full on day and good for the soul at all sorts of different levels.

Not least the intellectual.

I've known of the morning speaker for years. Professor Doug Kelly, along with his wife, were two of the folk we prayed for in the fellowship I was a member of when I first really came to know the Lord and gave my life to Christ. And because that fellowship over the years has continued to pray for me, this couple have known of me.

So although we've not actually met that much, it was really like meeting old friends.

Doug Kelly is a professor at an American theological seminary, and a very able man. He's over here in Scotland at this time for a year's sabbatical. Writing up the second volume (of three) of his 'Systematic Theology'. A very able man, like I say.

His theme today was the gift of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost. And the talk that he gave was the richest of spiritual fare. A rare treat indeed.

Those who serve need fed. I long since learned that truth. A liquid diet just doesn't suffice. And that's why the trend that there is today towards a preaching which makes no demands upon the hearers' minds is a disturbing, dishonouring thing.

Disturbing because it does not really build the sort of character the cause of Christ requires. Dishonouring because God made us with the minds we have and we're called, each one, to worship, love and honour him with all our minds.

Sunday worship is hard work. And I don't just mean for the preacher. I mean for us all.

Our minds are meant to be stretched.

But by a process too subtle to track all that well, we've been slowly beguiled into thinking that worship on Sundays is really a 'leisure activity'. A kind of recreational pastime which makes no demands at all. A sit-back-and-enjoy-it-all experience.

God has some news for us all and it's this - that sort of notion is nonsense.

The sooner we get back to how it's meant to be (the real, and not our 'virtual', artificial world) the better it will be for everyone.

Those who would serve need fed. Good, solid, mind-expanding food.