Witness

This is not a sad book, even though some of the stories are sad to read. This is not an angry book, even though some of the stories might excite outrage. This is not a gloomy book, even though some of the stories come from the shadows. This is a book about people who witness to life, even though they are surrounded by death. This is a book about what it means to bring light to a dark world. This is a book, in short, about what it means to be blessed.

The church leader, a gentle and kind man, came up to me. "Are you a man of faith, Mr Lyle?" he asked. "Father, I believe that I am," I replied. He took me over to the side of the church, to a pallet of maze and explained that this was all the food that was left. "Would you pray please for a miracle?" That kind of puts you on the spot, doesn't it? What could I do? I called my companions and together we prayed for God to help and multiply the food in front of us. These people had nothing, and now they faced having nothing to eat that day. We called out to God. Then, …

I think, in our world, poverty of spirit looks like this. It looks like a loss of belief in our own preciousness. It looks like a loss of hope. The witness of the persecuted church is that, when we have nothing else, we have hope. We have hope, because we know that our value does not lie in what we have but in who we are created to be. We are not our possessions, our status, our appearance: we are loved and cherished human beings, created in the image of God.

Is there something you are praying for in your life that requires a lot of faith? Perhaps you could ask others to help you pray for it? Often, faced with problems or difficulties, we rush to imagine the worst possible outcome. Choose hope. Try telling yourself a different story: what would be the best possible outcome?

Our egos weigh us down. They need a lot of managing and require a lot of feeding. Humility, on the other hand, is movement and rest.

mercy is an imaginative act: to practise mercy, we have to imagine what choices, what situations have brought people to this point, and what possibilities might lieb before them if we treat them with kindness.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God. Have mercy upon me. Try carrying the Jesus prayer with you throughout your day. Pray it under your breath whenever you have a spare moment, or when you have a repetitive task that needs doing. (You don't have to use these exact words - it can be any simple prayer that has significance for you.) Use it as a way to focus your mind on Christ.

For nearly two thousand years the church has prayed an incredibly radical prayer. We've got so used to it, that we miss out on how subversive it actually is. We pray, for one thing, that God's will be done on earth as in heaven. Not my will, not even the will of the people. God's will. Imagine what would happen if that actually the case! And as if that weren't combustible enough, the very next line is one that always brings me up short: 'Give us today our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us..." Wait... what?

What does it mean to be blessed? It almost feels embarrassing to be talking about it. Especially in the light of all these stories. When people face such pain, such suffering, how can we dare to talk about being happy? How can we contemplate joy in a world filled with such injustice? Even in our own world, joy can be seen as offensive. There is sadness and anxiety, inequality and injustice. So much to drain all the blessedness away. But we have to dare to be blessed. Even if it makes us seem out of step with the times