Cycle helmet
Image: Microsoft 365 Copilot
I’m looking forward to the end of this week, as something will happen that will make my life a whole lot easier. What is it?
Our schools and colleges finish for the academic year, which means that there will be significantly less traffic on my morning midweek runs.
The roads will be calmer and I won’t have to weave in and out of parents and students walking to school.
I’m sure pupils, parents and staff are ready for a well-earned break! I remember when our children were of school age, they couldn’t wait to get to the end of term.
Last week, on my morning run, I was overtaken by a boy cycling to school. As he zipped by, I noticed that instead of wearing his cycle helmet, it was clipped to his rucksack on his back!
I wondered why he had not put it on? As I continued running, I felt God speak to me about the helmet. It was there for a purpose, and yet the boy was not wearing it.
I was reminded of the things that God has done for us, and of things we are encouraged by God to ‘put on’. Here is an example from Paul’s letter to the church in Colosse…
“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”
God invites us to put on these virtues. They are freely available, and in your size, however, it seems like it is up to us if we ‘wear’ them or not.
In other words, we can go about our day not being kind or humble, having no compassion or patience etc. Or, we can ask God, by his Holy Spirit, to clothe us, and this will then shape and change what we do.
What we wear does influence how we behave and what we do. Just think about what people wear for certain jobs, sport or special occasions.
Let me encourage you to consider what God has available for you to wear and to intentionally clothe yourself in them today…
God bless you:)
Gary Bastin
Hope Community Church leader