Thought for the Week - 28/2/2021

Dear Friends, 

‘Do the little things’ is a quote from the life of Saint David, the patron saint of Wales. The month of March gives us two Saint’s days to celebrate, Saint David on the 1^st, and Saint Patrick, patron saint of Ireland, on the 17^th. Both these saints’ lives reminded me of the old Sunday School hymn, I sing a song of the saints of God. But what is it that makes a saint’s life so interesting? Perhaps it is that their lives were extra-ordinary because they achieved something special under extreme circumstances. Now whilst as Baptists we tend not to have a focus on saints, the stories of the lives of the saints can be a source of courage, strength and encouragement when we have to face something that may be trying and testing. Of course saints are not just the familiar ones that we may have learned about at school. There are very many ‘ordinary’ saints, and the hymn goes on to tell us, ‘one was a doctor, and one was queen, and one was a shepherdess on the green, one a soldier, one a priest, and one was slain by a fierce wild beast’. All who are followers of Jesus Christ are ‘saints’ and we are all facing up to situations and challenges within our own lives, some that we have no control over, some that are of our own making. It is how we deal with those challenges that marks us out. Maybe the question we should ask ourselves is, ‘How will my life be remembered?’ We may not be remembered because of some great theological statement or incredible act of kindness to humanity. But maybe it is in the quote from Saint David that we will find how we will be remembered, by doing the little things, the small things – because it is in the little things that we can see the love of God shining through. 

Grace and peace,

Neil